mmmmmm 


VENICE 

THE    PLACE    AND    THE    PEOPLE 


■?&&&• 


VEN 


WW' 


THE  ANGELS  OF  THE  SALUTE 


VENICE 

THE   PLACE   AND  THE   PEOPLE 

SALVE  •  VENETIA 

GLEANINGS 
FROM    VENETIAN    HISTORY 

BY 

FRANCIS    MARION    CRAWFORD 

WITH   22J    ILLUSTRATIONS   BY  JOSEPH   PENNELL 

IN     TWO    VOLUMES 
VOL.     II 


THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

1909 

All  rights  reserved 


C<  (PYRIGH  I  ,    1905   AND   1909, 
By  THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY. 

Set  up  and  electrotypecl.     Published  December,  1905.     Reprinted 
January,  1906;   Marcl 


Xortoooti  press 

J.  s.  Cashing  &  Co.— Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


CONTENTS 


ii. 
in. 

IV. 

v. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

*  IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 


INDEX 


The  Aristocratic  Magistracies  at  the  Beginning 
of  the  Sixteenth   Century 

Gleanings  from    Venetian   Criminal  History 

Venetian   Diplomacy  . 

The  Arsenal,  the  Glass-Works,  and  the  Lace- 
Makers      ....... 

Concerning  some  Ladies  of  the  Sixteenth  Century 

A  Few  Painters,   Men  of  Letters,  and  Scholars 

The  Triumphant  City      .... 

The  Hose   Club  —  Venetian  Legends 

The  Decadence  ..... 

The  Last   Homes  « —  The   Last  Great  Ladies 

The  Last  Carnivals  —  The  Last  Fairs  —  The 
Last  Feasts 

The  Last  Magistrates 

The  Last  Sbirri 

The  Last  Doges 

The  Last  Soldiers    . 

The  Last  Diplomatists 

The  Last  Hour 

Conclusion 

The  Doges  of  Venice 

Table  of  the   Principal  Dates  in  Venetian   His 

TORY 


I 
51 

11 

95 
117 

•32 
168 
189 
207 
232 

266 
288 
310 

334 
348 
361 
380 
41  2 
421 

425 

433 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PLATES 

The  Angels  of  the  Salute             .....    Frontispiece 

The  Last  Rays,  St.  Mark's 

To  face  page  35 

Palazzo  Ressonico    . 

72 

Steamers  coming  in 

96 

Afterglow,  the  Grand  Canal 

134 

Venice  from  the  Garden   . 

«           140 

Entrance  to  the  Sacristy,  Frari    . 

149 

Campiello  delle  Ancore     . 

208 

The  Salute  from  the  Riva 

'          246 

Fondamente  Nuove 

313 

From  San  Georgio  to  the  Salute 

326 

Ponte  Canonica 

356 

Out  in  the  Lagoon  .... 

382 

IN    TE 

XT 

S.  Maria  degli  Scalzi,  Grand  Canal 
Hall  of  the  Great  Clocks,  Ducal  Palace 
Hall  of  the  Pictures,  Ducal  Palace 
The  Stair  of  Gold,  Ducal  Palace 
Rio  S.  Atanasio        .... 


1 

7 

9 

13 

20 


\  111 


(il  KAXIWkS   from   history 


S.  Samuele 

On  the  Zatterc 

Rio  del  Rimedio 

Mouth  of  the  Grand  Canal 

The  Rialto  at  Night 

From  the  Balcony  of  the  Ducal  Palace 

The  Columns,  Piazzetta    . 

The  Salute  from  the  Giudecca 

A  Garden  Wall 

Palazzo  Dario 

Calle  Beccheria 

Ponte  del  Cristo 

S.  Michele     . 

Venice  from  Murano 

The  Duomo  Campanile,  Murano 

Murano,  looking  towards  Venice 

Murano  .... 

The  House  of  Beroviero,  Murano 

The  Palaces    . 

The  Rialto  Steps 

Noon  on  the  Rialto 

At  the  Rialto 

Evening  off  S.  Georgio 

Casa  Weidermann    . 

The  Grand  Canal  in  Summer 

Euganean  Hills  from  the  Lagoon,  Low  Tide 

House  of  Tintoretto 

House  of  Aldus 

S.  Giacomo  in  Orio 

Doorway  of  the  Sacrisrv,  S.  Giacomo  in  Orio 

Fondamenta  Sanudo  .... 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


IX 


A  Holiday  on  the  Riva     . 

Door  of  the  Carmine 

Interior  of  the  Carmine     . 

Campo  behind  S.  Giacomo  in  Orio      . 

The  Piazza     ..... 

Pigeons  in  the  Piazza 

Sotto  Portico  della  Guerra 

Ponte  S.  Antonio     .... 

S.  Zobenigo  ..... 

Ponte  delP  Angelo,  Giudecca,  Old  Wooden  Bridg 

Rio  S.  Sofia,  Night 

Santa  Maria  Formosa 

Grand  Canal  looking  towards  Mocenigo  Palace 

The  Fondamenta  S.  Giorgio,  Redentore  in  Distance 

Steps  of  the  Redentore 

The  Nave  of  S.  Stefano    . 

The  Riva  from  the  Dogana 

Campo  S.  Bartolomeo,  Statue  of  Goldoni 

SS.  Giovanni  e  Paolo 

Night  on  the  Riva  . 

Rio  della  Toresela   .... 

A  Narrow  Street,  near  the  Academy   . 

Grand  Canal  .... 

Church  of  the  Miracle 

The  Procession  of  the  Redentore 

Near  the  Fenice       .... 

Grand  Canal  from  the  Fish  Market 

S.  Barnabo     . 

Instituto  Bon,  Grand  Canal 

When  the  Alps  show  Themselves,  Fondamenta  Nuove 

Cafe  on  the  Zattere  ..... 


PAGE 

168 

•7  + 

177 
18] 

,85 
187 
189 

•93 
197 
202 
207 
21 1 
217 
222 
224 
229 
232 

233 
243 
244 

253 
259 
266 
271 
276 
286 
288 
289 

293 
300 
301 


CI  1  VNINGS    FROM    HISTORY 


The  Dogana  . 
Rio  della  Sensa 

R'm  S.  Stir.     . 

Rio  della  Guerra 

\  ia  Garibaldi 

The  Pesaro  Palace,  Grand  Canal 

Marco  Polo's  Court 

Ponte  della  Pieta 

From  the  Public  Garden  at  Sunset 

Boat-Builders 

The  Vegetable  Market 

Fondamenta  Weidermann 

The  Salute  from  S.  Giorg 

From  the  Ponte  della  Pieta 

On  the  Way  to  Fusina,  from  the  Mouth  of 

A  Lonely  Canal 

Evening 

The  Salute  from  the  Lagoon 

From  the  Ponte  S.  Rocco 

Campo  SS.  Giovanni  e  Paolo 

So-called  House  of  Desdemona 

Sails      .... 

A  Gateway    , 


the  Brenta 


PACE 

3°3 
310 

3'3 
3«» 
325 
334 
339 
344 
348 
353 
355 
357 
361 

365 
369 

374 
380 

385 
397 

4°  3 
407 
412 

4»3 


VENICE 

THE    PLACE    AND    THE    PEOPLE 


S.    MARIA   DEGLI    SCALZI,   GRAND    CANAL 


THE  ARISTOCRATIC  MAGISTRACIES  AT  THE 
BEGINNING  OF  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY 


Like  other  aristocracies,  the  Venetian  government  rarely 
destroyed  or  altogether  abolished  any  office  or  regula- 
tion which  had  existed  a  long  time.  When  a  change 
was  needed  the  duties  or  powers  of  one  or  more  of  the 
Councils  were  extended,  or  a  committee  of  the  Council 


2  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

of  Ten  was  appointed  and  presently  turned  into  a 
separate  tribunal,  as  when  the  Inquisitors  of  State  were 
created. 

In  one  sense  the  government  of  Venice  had  now 
existed  in  a  rigid  and  unchangeably  aristocratic  form 
during  two  centuries,  and  that  form  never  changed  to 
the  very  end.  But  in  another  sense  no  government  in 
the  world  ever  showed  itself  more  flexible  under  the 
pressure  of  events,  or  better  able  to  provide  a  new 
legislative  weapon  with  which  to  combat  each  new 
danger  that  presented  itself.  This  double  character  of 
an  administration  which  inspired  awe  by  its  apparent 
immutability  and  terror  by  its  ubiquity  and  energy,  no 
doubt  had  much  to  do  with  its  extraordinarily  long 
life;  for  I  believe  that  no  civilised  form  of  government 
ever  endured  so  long;  as  that  of  Venice. 

It  is  therefore  either  frivolous  or  hypocritical  to  seek 
the  causes  of  its  ultimate  collapse.  It  died  of  old  age, 
when  the  race  that  had  made  it  was  worn  out.  It 
would  be  much  more  to  the  point  to  inquire  why  the 
most  unscrupulous,  sceptical,  suspicious,  and  thoroughly 
immoral  organisation  that  ever  was  devised  by  man 
should  have  outlasted  a  number  of  other  organisations 
supposed  to  be  founded  on  something  like  principles  of 
liberty  and  justice.  Such  an  inquiry  would  involve  an 
examination  into  the  nature  of  freedom,  equity,  and 
truth  generally;  but  no  one  has  ever  satisfactorily 
defined  even  one  of  those  terms,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  the  things  the  words  are  supposed  to  mean  do  not 
anywhere  exist;    and  the  study  of  that  which  has  no 


i  ARISTOCRATIC   MAGISTRACIES  3 

real  existence,  and  no  such  potential  mathematical  exist- 
ence as  an  ultimate  ratio,  is  absolutely  futile. 

The  facts  we  know  about  the  Venetian  government 
are  all  interesting,  however.  It  had  its  origin,  like  all 
really  successful  governments,  in  the  necessities  of  a 
small  people  which  held  together  in  the  face  of  great 
dangers.  It  was  moulded  and  developed  by  the 
strongest  and  most  intelligent  portion  of  that  people, 
and  the  party  that  modelled  it  guessed  that  each 
member  of  the  party  would  destroy  it  and  make  him- 
self the  master  if  he  could,  wherefore  the  main  thing 
was  to  render  it  impossible  for  any  individual  to  succeed 
in  that.  The  individual  most  likely  to  succeed  was  the 
Doge  himself,  and  he  was  therefore  turned  into  a  mere 
doll,  a  puppet  that  could  not  call  his  soul  his  own.  The 
next  most  probable  aspirant  to  the  tyranny  would  be 
the  successful  native-born  general  or  admiral.  A 
machinery  was  invented  whereby  the  victorious  leader 
was  almost  certain  to  be  imprisoned,  fined,  and  exiled 
as  soon  as  his  work  was  done  and  idleness  made 
him  dangerous.  Pisani,  Zeno,  Da  Lezze  are  merely 
examples  of  what  happened  almost  invariably.  If  a 
Venetian  was  a  hero,  any  excuse  would  serve  for  locking 
him  up. 

Next  after  the  generals  came  the  nobles  who  held 
office,  and  lastly  those  who  were  merely  rich  and  in- 
fluential. They  were  so  thoroughly  hemmed  in  by  a 
hedge  of  apparently  petty  rules  and  laws  as  to  their  rela- 
tions with  foreigners,  with  the  people,  and  with  each  other, 
that  they  were  practically  paralysed,  as  individuals,  while 


4  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

remaining  active  and  useful  as  parts  of  rlu-  whole.  No 
one  ever  cared  what  the  people  thought  or  did,  for  they 
were  peaceable,  contented,  and  patriotic.  Every  measure 
passed  by  the  nobles  was  directed  against  an  enemy 
that  might  at  any  moment  arise  amongst  themselves, 
or  against  the  machinations  of  enemies  abroad.  Of 
all  Italians  the  Venetians  alone  were  not  the  victims  of 
that  simplicity  of  which  I  have  already  spoken.  1  hey 
believed  in  nothing  and  nobody,  and  they  were  not 
deceived.  They  were  not  drawn  into  traps  by  the 
wiles  of  the  Visconti  as  Genoa  was,  and  as  many  of  the 
principalities  were;  they  were  not  cheated  out  of  their 
money  by  royal  English  borrowers  as  the  Florentines 
were;  they  were  not  led  away  out  of  sentiment  to  ruin 
themselves  in  the  Crusades  as  so  many  were;  on  the 
contrary,  their  connection  with  the  Crusades  was  very 
profitable.  For  a  long  time  they  could  be  heroes  when 
driven  to  extremities,  but  they  never  liked  heroics; 
they  were  good  fighters  at  sea,  because  they  were  admir- 
able merchant  sailors,  but  on  land  they  much  preferred 
to  hire  other  men  to  fight  for  them,  whom  they  could 
pay  ofF  and  get  rid  of  when  the  work  was  done. 

Like  other  nations,  their  history  is  that  of  their  rise, 
their  culmination,  and  their  decline.  Like  other  nations, 
Venice  also  resembled  the  living  body  of  a  human 
being,  of  which  it  is  not  possible  to  define  with  absolute 
accuracy  the  periods  of  youth,  prime,  and  old  age. 
But  we  can  say  with  certainty  that  each  of  those  stages 
lasted  longer  in  the  life  of  Venice  than  in  the  life  of 
any  other  European  state,  perhaps  because  no  one  of 


i  ARISTOCRATIC   MAGISTRACIES  5 

the  three  periods  was  hastened  or  interrupted  by  an 
internal  revolution  or  by  the  temporary  presence  of  a 
foreign  conqueror. 

It  can  be  said,  however,  that  Venice  was,  on  the 
whole,  at  the  height  of  her  glory  about  the  year  1500, 
and  it  would  have  needed  a  gift  of  prophecy  to  fore- 
tell the  probable  date  of  the  still  distant  end.  At  that 
time  the  Great  Council  was  more  than  ever  the  incarna- 
tion of  the  State,  that  is,  of  the  aristocracy;  and  every 
member  of  the  great  assembly  had  a  sort  of  'cultus' 
for  his  own  dignity,  and  looked  upon  his  family,  from 
which  he  derived  his  personal  privileges,  with  a  venera- 
tion that  bordered  on  worship.  The  safety  and  pros- 
perity of  the  patrician  houses  were  most  intimately 
connected  with  the  welfare  of  the  country;  a  member 
of  the  Great  Council  would  probably  have  considered 
that  the  latter  was  the  immediate  consequence  of  the 
former.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  under  the  government 
which  the  aristocrats  had  given  themselves,  it  really  was 
so;    they  were  themselves  the  State. 

It  was  therefore  natural  that  they  should  guard  their 
race  against  all  plebeian  contamination.  From  time  to 
time  it  became  necessary  to  open  the  Golden  Book  and 
the  doors  of  the  Great  Council  to  certain  families  which 
had  great  claims  upon  the  public  gratitude,  as  happened 
after  the  war  of  Chioggia;  but  the  book  was  opened 
unwillingly,  and  the  door  of  the  council-chamber  was 
only  set  ajar;    the  newcomers  were  looked 

1  •       1  L  L  •  J  J        R0'"-  lV-  *6<?- 

upon   as    little   better  than   intruders,   and 

the    'new    men,'    while    they    were    invested    with    the 


6  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

outward  distinctions  of  rank  before  the  law,  were  not 
received  into  anything  like  intimacy  by  their  colleagues 
of  the  older  nobility. 

It  is  a  law  of  the  Catholic  Church  that  baptism 
creates  a  relationship,  and  therefore  a  canonical  impedi- 
ment to  marriage,  between  the  baptized  person  or  his 
parents  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  godfathers  and  god- 
mothers on  the  other,  as  well  as  between  each  of  the 
godparents  and  all  the  rest.  But  it  was  the  custom 
of  Venice  to  have  a  great  many  godfathers  and  god- 
mothers at  baptisms,  and  the  nobles  were  therefore 
obliged  by  law  to  choose  them  from  the  burgher  and 
artisan  classes.  It  was  perfectly  indifferent  that  a  young 
patrician  should  contract  a  spiritual  relationship  with 
a  hundred  persons  —  there  were  sometimes  as  many 
godparents  as  that  —  if  these  persons  were  socially  so  far 
beneath  him  that  he  must  lose  caste  if  he  married  one 
of  them;  but  it  was  of  prime  importance  that  the  law 
should  forbid  the  formation  of  any  spiritual  bond 
whereby  a  possible  marriage  between  two  members  of 
the  aristocracy  might  be  prevented,  or  even  retarded. 
Every  parish  priest  was  therefore  required  to  ask  in  a 
loud  voice,  when  he  was  baptizing  a  noble  baby,  whether 
there  were  any  persons  of  the  same  social  condition  as 
the  infant  amongst  the  godparents.  If  he  omitted  to 
do  this,  or  allowed  himself  to  be  deceived  by  those 
present,  he  was  liable  to  a  very  heavy  fine,  and  might 
even   be   imprisoned   for  several   months. 

The  Avogadori  now  replaced  their  old-fashioned 
register  by  the  one  henceforth  officially  known  as  the 


ARISTOCRATIC   MAGISTRACIES 


7 


Golden  Book,  in  which  were  entered  the  marriages  of 
the  nobles  and  the  births  of  their  children.  Every 
noble  who  omitted  to  have  his  marriage  registered 
within. one  week,  or  the  birth  of  his  children  within 
the  same  time,  was  liable  to  severe  penalties.     But  the 


HALL   OF  THE   GREAT   CLOCKS,   DL'CAL   PALACE 


names    of  women   of  inferior   condition    who   married 

nobles  were  not  entered  in  those  sanctified  pages,  since 

the  children  of  a  burgher  woman  could  not  sit  in  the 

Great   Council.     Nevertheless,    it    happened    now   and 

then  that  a  noble  sacrificed  the  privileges 

of  his  descendants  for  the  present  advantage 

of  a  rich  dowry;    and  as  this  again  constituted  a  source 


Afolmoiti,  Dog. 


8  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

of  anxiety  for  the  State,  the  amount  of  a  burgher 
girl's  marriage  portion  was  limited  by  law  to  the  sum 
of  two  thousand  ducats. 

The  young  aristocrats  received  a  special  education, 
to  ht  them  for  their  future  duties  and  offices.  We 
have  already  seen  that  young  men  not  yet  old  enough 
to  sit  in  the  Great  Council  were  admitted  to  its 
meetings  in  considerable  numbers,  though  without  a 
vote.     The    instruction    and   education    of 

Yrtarte,  Vie 

d'un Patricien     young  nobles  were  conducted  according  to 

de  Venise,  67.  r         1    •    1         1  1  •  1 

a  programme  or  which  the  details  were 
established  by  a  series  of  decrees,  and  especially  by  one 
dating  from  1443;  and  in  the  Senate  very  young  noble 
boys  were  employed  to  carry  the  ballot-boxes,  in  which 
office  they  took  turns,  changing  every  three  months. 
There  were  probably  not  enough  noble  children  to 
perform  the  same  duty  for  the  Great  Council,  which 
employed  for  that  purpose  a  number  of  boys  from  the 
Foundling  Asylum. 

The  young  nobles  were  brought  up  to  feel  that 
they  and  their  time  belonged  exclusively  to  the  State, 
and  when  they  grew  older  it  was  a  point  of  honour 
with  them  not  to  be  absent  from  any  meeting  of  the 
Councils  to  which  they  were  appointed.  Marcantonio 
Barbaro,  the  patrician  whose  life  M.  Yriarte  has  so 
carefully  studied,  missed  only  one  meeting  of  the 
Great  Council  in  thirty  years,  and  then  his  absence 
was  due  to  illness.  When  one  considers  that  the  Great 
Council  met  every  Sunday,  and  on  everv  feast  day 
except   the    second    of   March    and    the   thirty-first    of 


i  ARISTOCRATIC   MAGISTRACIES  9 

January,  which  was  Saint  Mark's   day,  such   constant 
regularity  is  reallv  wonderful. 


HALL   OF  THE    PICTURES,    DUCAL    PALACE 


During  the  summer  the  sittings  were  held  from 
eight  in  the  morning  until  noon,  in  winter  from  noon 
to  sunset;    this,  at  least,  was  the  ordinary  rule,  but  the 


io  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

Doge's  counsellors  could  multiply  the  meetings  to 
any  extent  they  thought  necessary,  and  we  know  that 
when  a  doge  was  to  be  elected  the  Great  Council 
sometimes  sat  fifty  times  consecutively. 

The  public  were  admitted  to  the  ordinary  sittings 
of  the  Great  Council,  and  in  later  times  one  could 
even  be  present  wearing  a  mask,  as  may  be  seen  in 
certain  old  engravings.  But  no  outsiders  were  admitted 
when  an  important  subject  was  to  be  discussed,  and  on 
those  occasions  a  number  of  members  were  themselves 
excluded.  If,  for  instance,  the  question  concerned  the 
Papal  Court,  all  those  who  had  ever  avowed  their 
sympathy  for  the  Holy  See,  or  who  had  any  direct 
relations  with  the  reigning  Pope,  or  who  owed  him 
any  debt  of  gratitude,  were  ordered  to  leave  the 
hall.  Such  persons  were  called  'papalisti,'  and  were 
frequently  shut  out  of  the  Great  Council  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  a  period  during  which  the  Republic 
had  many  differences  with  Rome. 

In  1526,  for  instance,  the  Patriarch  of  Venice  laid 
before  the  Great  Council  a  complaint  against  the 
Signors  of  the  Night,  who  refused  to  set  at  liberty 
a  certain  priest  arrested  by  them,  or  even  to  inform 
the  ecclesiastical  authorities  of  the  nature  of  his 
misdemeanour.  That  would  have  been  one  of  the 
occasions  for  excluding  the  'papalisti.'  The  Patriarch 
seems  to  have  been  a  hot-tempered  person,  for  on 
finding  that  he  could  get  no  satisfaction  from  the  Great 
Council,  he  excommunicated  the  Venetian  government 
and    everybody    connected    with    it,    and    posted    the 


i  INQUISITORS   OF   STATE  n 

notice  of  the  interdict  on  the  columns  of  the  ducal 
palace.  The  matter  was  patched  up  in  some  way, 
however,  for  on  the  morrow  the  notice  disappeared. 

The  Senate  met  twice  a  week,  on  Wednesdays  and 
Saturdays.  I  find  among  their  regulations  a  singular 
rule  by  which  the  beginning  of  every  speech  had  to  be 
delivered  in  theTuscan  language,  after  which  the  speaker 
was  at  liberty  to  go  on  in  his  own  Venetian  dialect. 

I  have  already  spoken  at  some  length  of  the  Council 
of  Ten;    it  is  now  necessary  to  say  some-     Fviin, studu, 
thing  of  the  Inquisitors  of  State,  to  whom  iSji (unfinished). 
the    Ten    ceded    a    part    of    their    authority    in    the 
sixteenth  century. 

In  the  first  place,  the  Inquisitors  of  State  never 
had  anything  to  do  with  the  'Inquisition,'  nor  with 
the  'Inquisitors  of  the  Holy  Office,'  a  tribunal,  oddly 
enough,  which  was  much  more  secular  than  ecclesiastic, 
and  which  belongs  to  a  later  period. 

Secondly,  the  so-called  'Statutes  of  the  Inquisitors 
of  State,'  published  by  the  French  historian  Daru,  in 
good  faith,  and  translated  by  Smedley,  were 
afterwards  discovered  to  be  nothing  but 
an  impudent  forgery,  containing  several  laughable 
anachronisms,  and  a  number  of  mistakes  about  the 
nature  of  the  magistracies  which  prove  that  the  forger 
was  not  even  a  Venetian. 

Thirdly,  the  genuine  Statutes  have  been  discovered 
since,  and  are  given  at  length  by  Romanin.  Thev  do 
not  bear  the  least  resemblance  to  the  nonsense  pub- 
lished by  Daru.     No  one  except  Romanin  would  have 


iz  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

attempted  to  whitewash  the  Inquisitors  and  the  Coun- 
cil of  Ten,  and  even  he  is  obliged  to  admit  that  for 
'weighty  reasons  of  state'  they  did  not  hesitate  to 
order  secret  assassinations;  but  they  were  not  fools, 
as  the  'Statutes'  of  Daru  make  them  appear. 

The  proof  that  the  Statutes  published  bv  Romanin 
are  genuine  consists  in  the  fact  that  two  independent 
copies  of  them  have  been  found;  the  one,  written  out 
by  Angelo  Nicolosi,  secretary  to  the  Inquisitors,  with  a 
dedication  to  them  dated  the  twenty-fifth  of  September 
1669;  the  other,  a  pocket  copy,  written  out  in  161 2, 
with  his  own  hand,  by  the  Inquisitor  Niccolo  Dona, 
nephew  of  the  Doge  Leonardo  Dona.  The  Statutes  in 
these  two  copies  are  identical;  the  earlier  one,  which 
belonged  to  Dona,  contains  also  a  number  of  interesting 
memoranda  concerning  the  doings  of  the  tribunal  in 
that  year. 

Lastly,  it  is  conjectured  by  Romanin  that  the  author 
of  the  forgery  that  imposed  on  Daru  and  others  was 
no  less  a  personage  than  Count  Francesco  della  Torre, 
the  ambassador  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  He  died 
in  Venice  in  1695. 

These  facts  being  clearlv  stated,  we  can  pass  on  to 
inquire  how  and  why  the  court  of  the  Inquisitors  of 
State  was  evoked,  it  being  well  understood  that  although 
they  were  not  the  malignant  fiends  described  by  Daru, 
who  seems  to  have  had  in  his  mind  the  German  tales 
of  the  'Wehmgericht,'  yet,  in  the  picturesque  language 
of  their  native  Italy,  'they  were  not  shinbones  of  saints' 
either. 


INQUISITORS   OF   STATE 


*3 


Most    historians    consider    that    'Inquisitors    of   the 
Council  of  Ten'  were  first  appointed  by  that  Council 


--■ 


& 


THE    STAIR   OF   GOLD,    DUCAL    PALACE 


in  13 14,  and  it  is  generally  conceded  that  they  did  not 
take  the  title  'Inquisitors  of  State'  and  begin  to  be  re- 
garded unofficially  as  a  separate  tribunal  till  1539.     The 


i4  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

mass  of  evidence  goes  to  show  that  these  two  dates  are, 
at  least,  not  far  wrong,  and  during  more  than  two 
hundred  years  between  the  two,  the  members  of  the  com- 
mittee were  called  indifferently  either  the  'Inquisitors,' 
or  the  '  Executives'  of  the  Ten. 

They  were  at  first  either  two,  or  three;  later  they 
were  always  three,  and  they  were  commissioned  to 
furnish  proofs  against  accused  persons,  and  occasion- 
ally to  make  the  necessary  arrangements  for  secretly 
assassinating  traitors  who  had  fled  the  country  and 
were  living  abroad.  At  first  their  commission  was 
a  temporary  one,  which  was  not  renewed  unless  the 
gravity  of  the  case  required  it.  Later,  when  they 
became  a  permanent  tribunal  of  three,  two  of  their 
number  were  always  regular  members  of  the  Council  of 
Ten,  and  were  called  the  'Black  Inquisitors,'  because 
the  Ten  wore  black  mantles;  the  third  was  one  of  the 
Doge's  counsellors,  who,  as  will  be  remembered,  were 
among  the  persons  always  present  at  the  meetings  of 
the  Ten,  and  he  was  called  the  'Red  Inquisitor'  from 
the  colour  of  his  counsellor's  cloak. 

The  fourteenth  century  was  memorable  on  account 
of  the  great  conspiracies,  and  it  is  at  least  probable  that 
after  1320  the  secret  committee  of  the  Ten  became 
tolerably  permanent  as  to  its  existence,  though  its 
members  were  often  changed.  Signor  Fulin  has  dis- 
covered that  during  a  part  of  the  fifteenth  century  they 
were  chosen  only  for  thirty  days,  and  that  the  utmost 
exactness  was  enforced  on  those  who  vacated  the  office. 
A  long  discussion  took  place  at  that  time  as  to  whether 


i  INQUISITORS   OF  STATE  15 

the  month  began  at  the  midnight  preceding  the  day  of 
the  Inquisitor's  election,  or  only  on  the  morning  of 
that  day;  since,  in  the  latter  case,  an  Inquisitor  at  the 
end  of' his  term  would  have  the  right  to  act  until 
sunrise  on  the  thirty-first  day,  whereas,  in  the  other,  he 
would  have  to  resign  his  seat  at  the  first  stroke  of  mid- 
night. The  incident  is  a  good  instance  of  the  Venetian 
manner  of  interpreting  the  letter  of  the  law. 

So  long  as  the  tribunal  was  merely  a  committee 
depending  on  the  Ten  it  had  no  archives  of  its  own, 
and  whatever  it  did  appeared  officially  as  the  act  of  the 
Council,  of  which  the  Inquisitors  were  merely  executive 
agents.  They  were  dismissed  at  the  end  of  their  month 
of  service  with   a   regular  formula :  — 

'The  Inquisitors  will  come  to  the  Council  with  what 
they  have  found,  and  the  Council  will  decide  what  it 
thinks  best  with  regard  to  them.' 

In  those  times  they  received  no  general  authorisation 
or  power  to  act  on  their  own  account,  and  their  office 
must  have  been  excessively  irksome,  since  a  heavy  fine 
was  exacted  from  any  one  who  refused  to  serve  on  the 
committee  when  he  had  been  chosen.  Though  they 
were  not,  as  a  rule,  men  of  over-sensitive  conscience, 
they  felt  their  position  keenly  and  served  with  ill- 
disguised  repugnance,  well  knowing  that  they  were 
hated  as  a  body  even  more  than  they  were  feared,  and 
that  their  lives  were  not  always  safe. 

In  early  times  their  actual  permanent  power  was 
very  limited,  though  the  Ten  could  greatly  extend  it 
for  any  special  purpose.     For  instance,  they  could  not, 


16  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY'  i 

of  their  own  will,  proceed  even  to  a  simple  arrest; 
they  could  not  order  the  residence  of  a  citizen  to  be 
searched ;  and  they  could  not  use  torture  in  examining 
a  witness,  without  a  special  authorisation  from  the  Ten 
on  each  occasion. 

Their  work  then  lay  almost  wholly  in  secretly 
spying  upon  suspected  persons;  and  it  often  happened 
that  when  such  an  one  was  at  last  arrested  the  whole 
mass  of  evidence  against  him  was  already  written  out 
and  in  the  hands  of  the  Ten.  It  also  certainly  happened 
now  and  then  that  a  person  was  proved  innocent  by  the 
Inquisitors  who  had  been  suspected  by  the  Ten,  and 
who  had  never  had  the  least  idea  that  he  wTas  in  danger. 

The  machinery  did  not  always  work  quickly,  it  is 
true,  especially  after  the  accused  was  arrested  and 
locked  up.  Trials  often  dragged  on  for  months,  so 
that  when  the  culprit  was  at  last  sentenced  to  a  term  of 
prison,  it  appeared  that  he  had  already  served  more 
than  the  time  to  which  he  was  condemned.  This 
abuse,  however,  led  to  a  vigorous  reform  by  a  series 
of  stringent  decrees,  the  time  of  inquiry  was  limited, 
for  ordinary  cases,  to  three  days,  and  for  graver 
matters  to  a  month,  and  ruinous  fines  were  imposed 
on  Councillors  and  Inquisitors  who  were  not  present 
at  every  sitting  of  the  Court. 

It  was  towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century 
that  the  Inquisitors,  being  then  elected  for  the  term  of 
a  year,  were  given  much  greater  power  than  theretofore. 
Though  they  were  still  closely  associated  with  the  Ten, 
they  now  had  a  sort  of  official  independence,  including 


i  INQUISITORS   OF   STATE  17 

the  right  to  a  method  of  procedure  of  their  own,  with 
secret  archives  quite  separate  from  those  of  the  Ten. 
The  year  .1596  is  generally  given  as  the  date  at  which 
the  separate  tribunal  was  definitely  created,  with  per- 
manent instructions  to  watch  over  the  public  safety, 
and  to  detect  all  plots  and  conspiracies  that  might 
threaten  the  '  ancient  laws  and  government  of  Venice.' 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  procedure  of  the  Ten,  or  of 
the  Inquisitors,  was  arbitrary,  and  the  supreme  Venetian 
tribunals  have  not  deserved  all  the  obloquy  that  has 
been  heaped  upon  them;  but  at  a  time  when  the  most 
inhuman  methods  were  used  to  obtain  evidence,  they 
certainly  did  not  give  an  example  of  gentleness. 

Signor  Fulin,  to  whose  recent  researches  all  students 
of  Venetian  history  are  much  indebted,  says,  with 
perfect  truthfulness,  that  torture  was  by  no  means 
used  with  moderation.  He  cites  a  document  signed  by 
the  Ten  and  the  Inquisitors,  dated  the  twenty-fifth  of 
April    1445:  — 

'We  have  received  a  humble  petition-  from  Luigi 
Cristoforo  Spiaciario,  sentenced  to  two  years'  imprison- 
ment and  ten  years  of  exile  for  unnatural  crimes.  The 
said  convict  has  passed  two  years  in  prison  according 
to  his  sentence,  and  five  years  more  in  the  corridors  of 
the  prisons,  because  his  feet  having  been  burnt  and  his 
arms  dislocated  by  torture,  he  could  not  leave  Venice. 
The  said  convict  petitions  that,  out  of  regard  for  so 
much  suffering,  he  may  be  pardoned  the  last  five  years 
of  his  condemnation.' 

The  same  writer  also  tells  us  that  in  spite  of  the 
VOL.  11.  —  c 


i8 


GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 


precautions  which  were  supposed  to  be  taken,  torture 
often  ended  in  death ;  and  in  the  archives  of  the 
Ten  there  are  instances  of  horrible  mutilations  besides 
public  decapitations,  secret  stranglings,  and  hangings 
and  poisonings;  there  are  also  some  cases  of  death 
inflicted  by  drowning,  though  these  were  less  frequent 
than  has  been  supposed;  and  lastly,  the  quiet  waters  of 
the  canals  have  more  than  once  reflected  the  blaze  of 
faggots  burning  round  the  stake. 

Romanin's  industry  has  left  us  an  exact  list  of  the 
official  drownings  that  took  place  between  155 1  and 
1604,  a  period  of  fifty-three  years.  As  it  is  not  long, 
I  append  it  in  full.  The  list  is  made  out  from  the 
register  of  deaths  which  is  preserved  in  the  church  of 
Saint  Mark's. 

In  1 55 1  there  were  secretly  drowned  2  persons 


!554 

cc 

cc 

2          " 

1555 

cc 

cc 

2          " 

1556 

cc 

cc 

3       " 

1557 

cc 

cc 

4 

1558 

(( 

cc 

I        " 

1559 

cc 

cc 

8       « 

1560 

cc 

cc 

7       " 

1569 

cc 

cc 

6       » 

1571 

cc 

cc 

4       " 

J573 

cc 

cc 

7        " 

From  1574  to 

1584 

cc 

cc 

12        " 

1584  to 

1594 

cc 

cc 

55 

1 594  to 

1600 

cc 

cc 

50       « 

1600  to 

1604 

cc 

cc 

40       " 

Total 

number 

of  d 

rowned 

203  during  53  years 

i  INQUISITORS   OF  STATE  19 

The  last  person  who  suffered  death  by  drowning 
was  a  glass-blower  of  Murano  in  the  eighteenth 
century.- 

Before  going  on  to  say  a  word  about  the  prisons  in 
the  sixteenth  century  it  is  as  well  to  call  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  Inquisitors  of  State  twice  found  them- 
selves in  direct  relations  with  the  English  government; 
once,  in  1587,  when  they  called  the  attention  of 
England  to  a  conspiracy  which  was  brewing  in  Spain; 
and  again,  a  few  years  later,  in  connection  with  the 
tragedy  of  Antonio  Foscarini  in  which  they  played  such 
a  deplorable  part.  Is  it  not  possible  that  there  may  be 
some  documents  in  the  English  Record  Office  bearing 
upon  those  circumstances,  and  likely  to  throw  more 
light  upon  the  tribunal  of  the  Inquisitors  ? 

In  connection  with  the  prisons,  I  take  the  following 
details,  among  many  similar  ones,  from  documents 
found  by  Signor  Fulin  in  the  archives  of  the  Inquisitors 
of  State.  He  says,  in  connection  with  them,  that  they 
are  by  no  means  exaggerated.  One  of  the  most 
characteristic  is  a  case  dated  towards  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  it  will  serve  as  an  example,  since 
it  is  known  that  no  great  changes  were  made  in  the 
management  of  the  prisons  until  much  later. 

'There  has  been  found  in  the  prisons  a  youth  named 
Menegidio  Scutellario,  whom  the  Council  of  Ten  had 
sentenced  to  twenty-five  blows  of  the  stick,  which 
he  received,  and  to  a  year's  imprisonment.  He  was 
transferred  from  the  new  prisons  to  the  one  called 
Muzina,    where    he    contracted    an    extremely    painful 


20 


GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 


inflammatory  disease  which  has  produced  running  sores. 
He   has   several   on    his   head,   and    his   face   is   much 


RIO   S.    ATANASIO 


swollen.     Moreover,  this  boy  is  shut  up  in  the  prison 
with  twenty-five  men  of  all  ages,  which  is  very  dangerous 


i  INQUISITORS   OF   STATE  21 

for  him  from  a  moral  point  of  view.  A  widow,  who 
says  she  is  his  mother,  comes  every  day  to  the  Palace 
begging  and  imploring  that  her  son  may  not  be  left  in 
this  abominable  prison,  lest  he  die  there,  or  at  least 
learn  all  manner  of  wickedness  in  the  company  of  so 
many  criminals.  We  consequently  order  that  in  view 
of  the  justice  of  these  complaints  the  boy  be  kept  in  the 
corridor  of  the  prisons  till  the  end  of  his  year.' 

As  in  the  Tower  of  London,  so  also  in  the 
gloomy  dens  of  the  Pozzi,  former  prisoners  have  left 
short  records  of  themselves.  For  instance:  Mutineiu, 
'1576,  22  March.  I  am  Mandricardo  AnnaiiUrb. 
Matiazzo  de  Marostega' ;  'Galeazzo  Avogadro  and 
his  friends  1584';  and  lower  down  the  following  mis- 
spelt Latin  words,  'Odie  mihi,  chras  tibi  (sic)'  -  -'My 
turn  to-day,  to-morrow  yours.' 

Occasionally  some  daring  convict  succeeded  in 
escaping  from  those  deep  and  secure  prisons.  In  his 
journal,  under  the  fifth  of  August  1497,  Marin  Sanudo 
writes :  — 

It  has  happened  that  in  the  prisons  of  Saint  Mark  a  num- 
ber of  convicts  who  were  to  remain  there  till  thev  died  have 
plotted  to  escape ;  they  elected  for  their  chief  that  Loico 
Fioravante,  who  killed  his  father  on  the  night  of  Good  Friday 
in  the  church  of  the  Frari.  There  was  also  Marco  Corner, 
sentenced  for  an  unnatural  crime;  Benedetto  Petriani,  thief, 
and  many  others.  On  the  evening  of  the  fourth,  when  the 
jailers  were  making  their  usual  rounds,  the  prisoners  succeeded 
in  disarming  and  binding  them,  and  went  on  from  one  prison 
to  another,  their  numbers  increasing  as  they  went,  till  they 
reached  the    last  (novissima) ;    there  they   found   arrows  and 


22  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

other  arms,  and  began  to  discuss  a  plan  of  escape.  Now  it 
chanced  that  two  Saracens  who  were  amongst  them  wished  to 
get  out  more  quickly,  without  waiting  for  the  deliberations  of 
their  comrades.  One  of  them  was  almost  drowned  in  the 
canal,  the  other  took  fright  and  began  to  cry  out  for  help.  A 
boat  of  the  Council  of  Ten  which  was  just  passing  picked  up 
the  half-drowned  man  ;  the  fact  that  he  was  a  Saracen  suggested 
that  he  might  be  a  fugitive,  and  he  was  frightened  into  con- 
fessing. The  plot  was  now  revealed  and  the  guard  was 
immediately  informed.  On  the  following  morning  the  chiefs 
of  the  Ten,  Cosimo  Pasqualigo,  Niccolo  da  Pesaro,  Domenico 
Beneto,  went  to  the  prisons  with  a  good  escort,  but  they  could 
not  get  in,  for  the  prisoners  defended  themselves.  Then  wet 
straw  was  brought,  and  it  was  lighted  in  order  that  the  smoke 
might  suffocate  them.  And  they  were  advised  to  yield  before 
the  order  of  the  Council  of  Ten  was  repeated  thrice,  for  other- 
wise they  would  all  be  hanged.  Marco  Corner  was  the  first  to 
surrender,  and  after  him  all  the  others.  They  were  taken 
back,  each  to  his  prison,  under  a  closer  watch. 

In  Marco  Corner's  case  the  love  of  liberty  must  have 
been  strong,  for  in  the  same  journal  of  Sanudo  we  find 
that  in  little  more  than  a  year  after  their  unsuccessful 
attempt  at  flight,  he  and  some  companions  actually 
succeeded  in  getting  out  and  made  their  exit  through 
the  hall  of  the  Piovego,  that  is  to  say,  through  the 
Doge's  palace.  Their  numbers  were  considerable,  and 
six  of  them  were  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  life. 
During  the  night  they  reached  the  monastery  of  Saint 
George,  and  at  dawn  they  were  already  beyond  the 
confines  of  Venetian  territory. 

Having  disposed  of  the  Inquisitors  of  State,  I  shall 


i  .  THE   HOLY  OFFICE  23 

now  endeavour  to  explain  the  position  and  duties  of 
the  Inquisitors  of  the  Holy  Office,  with  whom  the 
ordinary  reader  is  very  apt  to  confound  them. 

In  the  first  place,  the  Holy  Office  in  Venice  was  a 
much  milder  and  more  insignificant  affair  than  it  was 
at  that  time  in  other  European  states.  In  Venice  it 
seems  to  have  corresponded  vaguely  to  the  modern 
European  Ministry  of  Public  Worship.  There  are 
some  amusing  stories  connected  with  it,  but  no  very 
terrible  ones  so  far  as  I  can  ascertain. 

The  Republic  had  long  resisted  the  desire  of  the 
Popes  to  establish  a  branch  of  the  Holy  Inquisition 
in  Venice,  but  by  way  of  showing  a  conciliatory 
spirit,  while  maintaining  complete  independence,  the 
government  had  created  a  magistracy  which  was  respon- 
sible for  three  matters,  namely,  the  condition  of  the 
canals,  the  regulation  of  usury,  and  —  of  all  things  - 
cases  of  heresy.  It  is  perfectly  impossible  to  say  why 
three  classes  of  affairs  so  different  were  placed  under 
the  control  of  one  body  of  men.  Considering  the 
gravity  of  the  Venetian  government  we  can  hardly 
suppose  that  it  was  intended  as  a  piece  of  ironical  wit 
at  the  expense  of  the  Holy  See.  It  may,  at  all  events, 
be  considered  certain  that  the  Savi  all'  Eresia,  literally 
the  Wise  Men  on  Heresy,  of  the  thirteenth  century,  had 
not  accomplished  what  was  expected  of  them,  since  in 
1289  the  government  recognised  the  necessity  of  estab- 
lishing a  special  court  to  deal  with  affairs  of  religion, 
presided  over,  at  least  in  appearance,  by  a  person 
delegated    for   that    purpose    from    the   Vatican.     The 


24  GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  i 

Holy  Office  was  thereby  accepted  in  Venice,  hut  with 
restrictions    that    paralysed    it. 
The  tribunal  was,  in  principle,  composed  of  three 

persons,  the  Apostolic  Nuncio,  the-  Patriarch,  and  the 
MoimmH,      Father  Inquisitor,  all  three  of  whom  had  to 

stud.eRic.  De  approved  by  the  Republic.  As  a  first 
step  towards  hindering  them  from  acting  rashly,  they 
were  strictly  forbidden  to  discuss  or  decide  anything 
whatsoever,  except  in  the  presence  of  three  Venetian 
nobles,  who  were  appointed  year  by  year,  and  preserved 
their  ancient  title  of  Wise  Men  on  Heresy.  Next, 
the  Holy  Office  was  not  allowed   to  busy  itself  about 

Rom.u.252,    any  religious  matter  except  heresy,  in  the 

a/uizuii.jfS.  strjctest  sense;  it  could  not  interfere  in 
connection  with  any  violation  of  the  laws  of  the  Church, 
not  even  in  cases  of  sorcery  or  blasphemy,  for  magicians 
fell  under  the  authority  of  the  Signors  of  the  Night,  and 
blasphemers  were  answerable  to  the  Executives  against 
Blasphemy. 

These  laws  had  not  changed  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, and  the  Holy  Office  had  less  to  do  than  most  of 
the  contemporary  tribunals.  An  examination  of  the 
documents  preserved  in  its  archives  shows  that  from 
the  year  1541  to  the  fall  of  the  Republic  there  were 
three  thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty  trials,  of  which 
fifteen  hundred  and  sixty-five  fell  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  fourteen  hundred  and  ninety-seven  in  the 
seventeenth,  and  only  five  hundred  and  sixty-one  in  the 
eighteenth.  In  the  majority  of  cases  the  testimony  was 
declared  insufficient;   in  others,  the  accused  hastened  to 


i  THE   HOLY   OFFICE  25 

abjure  their  errors.  Sometimes,  however,  we  find  long 
trials  in  the  course  of  which  torture  was  used  as  by  the 
other  tribunals,  and  in  these  cases  the  end  was  frequently 
a  sentence  of  death  or  a  condemnation  to  the  galleys. 
No    heretic    was    ever    burned     alive     in 

\t       •  11  •     n-  11  i"  Molmenti,  Stud. 

Venice;    death  was  mtiicted  by  strangling,      eRic.,and 
beheading,  or  hanging.      Each   Doge  pro-   Cecchetti,  Corte 
mised,  indeed,  on  his  election,  to  burn  all 
heretics,  but  it  is  amply  proved  that  only  their  dead 
bodies  or  their  effigies  were  really  given  to  the  flames. 


m     co     m 


Door  used  by  the         |UUUUUUUUUU| 

Father  Inquisitor,  the   I 

Nuncio's  Auditor,  the  J  L  Door  used  bv  the 

Patriarch's   Vicar,  (        ~.  7T    77i T7Z  \  Patriarch,  the 

the   Commissioner  ^        Court  of  the  Holy  Office        J  Nuncio,  and  the 

of  the  Inquisition,       "I  T three  Senators. 


and  the  Clerk  of 
the  Exchequer. 


The  tribunal  of  the  Holy  Office  sat  in  a  very  low 
vaulted  room  in  the  buildings  of  Saint  Mark's,  which 
was  reached  by  a  narrow  staircase  after  passing  through 
the  Sacristy.  The  Court  had  no  prisons  of  its  own. 
Persons  who  were  arrested  by  it,  or  sentenced  by  it  to 
terms  of  imprisonment,  were  confined  in  the  prisons  of 
the  State,  probably  in  those  of  the  Ponte  della  Paglia. 
It  is  likely  that  the  Court  had  at  its  disposal  two  or 


26  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

three  cells  near  its  place  of  sitting,  tor  the  detention  of 
the  accused  during  the  trials.  Signor  Molmenti  has 
ascertained  precisely  how  the  members  ot  the  tribunal 
were  placed,  and  has  published  a  diagram  which  I  here 
reproduce  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  like  such  curious 
details. 

As  will  be  seen  by  the  diagram,  one  half  of  the 
personages  used  one  entrance,  and  the  rest  came  in  by 
the  other.  Until  the  year  1560,  the  Inquisitor  him- 
self was  a  Franciscan  monk,  but  afterwards  he  was 
always   a    Dominican. 

The  hall  was  gloomy  and  ill-lighted,  the  furniture 
poor;  it  did  not  please  the  Republic  to  spend  money 
for  the  delectation  of  a  court  which   it  did   not  like. 

It  was  here  that  two  famous  trials  took  place  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  namely,  that  of  Giordano  Bruno,  the 
renegade  monk,  dear  to  Englishmen  who  have  never 
read  the  very  scarce  volume  of  his  insane  and  filthy 
writings,  a'nd  that  of  the  celebrated  painter  Paolo 
Veronese.  The  contrast  between  these  two  documents 
is  very  striking,  but  both  go  to  prove  that  the  Holy 
Office  in  Venice  was  seldom  more  than  a  hollow  sham, 
and  that  its  proceedings  occasionally  degenerated  to- 
wards  low   comedy. 

Having  escaped  from  Rome,  Giordano  Bruno  left 
the  ecclesiastical  career  which  he  had  dishonoured  in 
Previa,  vita  di  every  possible  way,  and  wandered  about  in 
Giordano  Bruno.  searcn  0f  money  and  glory.  In  the  course 
of  time  he  came  to  London,  where  his  coarseness  and  his 
loose  life  made  him  many  enemies.     Thence  he  went  on 


i  THE   HOLY  OFFICE  27 

to  Oxford,  where,  by  means  of  some  potent  protection, 
he  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  privilege  of  lecturing  on 
philosophy;  but  the  university  authorities  were  soon 
scandalised  by  his  behaviour  and  frightened  by  the  extra- 
vagance of  his  doctrines ;  in  three  months  he  was  obliged 
to  leave.  He  revenged  himself  by  writing  a  libel  called 
'La  Cena  delle  Ceneri,'  in  which  he  described  England 
as  a  land  of  dark  streets  in  which  one  stuck  in  the  mud 
knee-deep,  and  of  houses  that  lacked  every  necessary ;  the 
boats  on  the  Thames  were  rowed  by  men  more  hideous 
than  Charon,  the  workmen  and  shop-keepers  were 
vulgar  and  untaught  rustics,  always  ready  to  laugh  at 
a  stranger,  and  to  call  him  by  such  names  as  traitor, 
or  dog.  In  this  pleasing  pamphlet  the  Englishwoman 
alone  escapes  the  writer's  foul-mouthed  hatred,  to  be 
insulted  by  his  still  more  foul-mouthed  praise.  One 
may  imagine  the  sort  of  eulogy  that  would  run  from 
the  pen  of  a  man  capable  of  describing  woman  in 
general  as  a  creature  with  neither  faith  nor  constancy, 
neither  merit  nor  talent,  but  full  of  more  pride, 
arrogance,  hatred,  falseness,  lust,  avarice,  ingratitude 
and,  generally,  of  more  vices  than  there  were  evils  in 
Pandora's  box;  one  might  quote  many  amenities  of 
language  more  or  less  senseless,  as,  for  instance,  that 
woman  is  a  hammer,  a  foul  sepulchre,  and  a  quartan 
fever;  and  there  are  a  hundred  other  expressions  which 
cannot  be  quoted  at  all. 

Towards  1 59 1 ,  the  patrician  Giovanni  Mocenigo, 
an  enthusiastic  collector  of  books,  found  in  the  shop  of 
a  Dutch  bookseller  a  little  volume,  entitled  Eroici  Furori, 


28  GLEANINGS    FROM   HISTORY  i 

which  contains  some  astrological  calculations  and  sonic- 
hints  on  mnemonics.  The  purchaser  asked  who  the 
author  might  be,  learned  from  the  bookseller  that  it 
was  Giordano  Bruno,  entered  into  correspondence  with 
him,  and  at  last  invited  him  to  Venice. 

Bruno,  it  is  needless  to  say,  accepted  the  invitation 
eagerly, as  he  accepted  everything  that  wasoffered  to  him, 
hut  it  was  not  long  before  Mocenigo  regretted  his  haste- 
to  be  hospitable.  He  had  begun  by  calling  his  visitor  his 
dear  master;  before  long  he  discovered  the  man  to  be 
a  debauchee  and  a  blasphemer.  Now  it  chanced  that 
Mocenigo  had  sat  in  the  tribunal  of  the  Holy  Office 
as  one  of  the  three  senators  whose  business  it  was  to 
oversee  the  acts  of  the  Father  Inquisitor,  and  he  was 
not  only  a  devout  man,  but  had  a  taste  for  theology. 
He  began  by  remonstrating  with  Bruno,  but  when  the 
latter  became  insolent,  he  quietly  turned  the  key  on 
him  and  denounced  him  to  the  Holy  Office.  A  few 
hours  later  the  renegade  monk  was  arrested  and  con- 
veyed to  prison.  He  was  examined  several  times  by 
the  tribunal,  but  was  never  tortured,  and  as  the  judges 
thought  they  detected  signs  of  coming  repentance  they 
granted  him  a  limit  of  time  within  which  to  abjure 
his  errors.  But  the  trial  did  not  end  in  Venice, 
for  the  Republic  made  an  exception  in  this  case  and 
soon  yielded  to  a  request  from  the  Pope  that  the 
accused  should  be  sent  to  Rome.  He  was  ultimately 
burnt  there,  the  only  heretic,  according  to  the  most 
recent  and  learned  authorities,  who  ever  died  at  the 
stake   in   Italy.     He  was   in   reality   a   degenerate   and 


i  THE  HOLY  OFFICE  29 

a    lunatic,    who    should    have    ended    his    days    in    an 
asylum. 

M.  Yriarte  has  published  in  the  appendix  to  his 
study  of  the  Venetian  noble  in  the  sixteenth  century 
the  verbatim  report  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Holy 
Office  on  the  eighteenth  of  July  1573.  The  prisoner 
at  the  bar  was  Paolo  Veronese.  I  quote  the  following 
from  M.  Yriarte's  translation  :  — 

Report  of  the  sitting  of  the  Tribunal  of  the  Inquisition  on 
Saturday  July  eighteenth,  1573. 

This  day,  July  eighteenth,  1573.  Called  to  the  Holy 
Office  before  the  sacred  tribunal,  Paolo  Galliari  Veronese 
residing  in  the  parish  of  Saint  Samuel,  and  being  asked  as  to 
his  name  and  surname  replied  as  above. 

Being  asked  as  to  his  profession  :  — 

Answer.    I  paint  and  make  figures. 

Question.  Do  you  know  the  reasons  why  you  have  been 
called  here  ? 

A.    No. 

Q.    Can  you  imagine  what  those  reasons  may  be? 

A.    I  can  well  imagine. 

Q^  Say  what  you  think  about  them. 

A.    I  fancy  that  it  concerns  what  was  said  to  me  by  the 

reverend  fathers,  or  rather  by  the  prior  of  the  monastery  of 

San  Giovanni  e   Paolo,  whose  name   I   did   not  Sutter 

know,  but  who  informed  me  that  he  had  been       in  the  house 

here,  and  that  your  Most  Illustrious   Lordships    „   °/Sn"""- 
'  J  '       Paolo  I  eronese ; 

had  ordered  him  to  cause  to  be   placed   in   the       Accademia, 
picture  a  Magdalen   instead   of  the  dog;  and   I 
answered  him  that  very  readily  I  would  do  all  that  was  needful 
for  my  reputation  and  for  the  honour  of  the  picture  ;  but  that  I 


JO 


GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 


did  not  understand  what  this  figure  of  Magdalen  could  be  doing 


J   aittfl 


I IP11J 


•t^"" 


>v 


WOES)! 


'^  f *  fl  ft 

hji! 


M£%JSM 


i 


S'i^^ip^ 


S.    SAM  TELE 


here  ;  and  this  for  many  reasons,  which  I  will  tell,  when  occa- 
sion is  granted  me  to  speak. 


i  THE   HOLY  OFFICE  31 

Q.    What  is  the  picture  to  which  you  have  been  referring? 

A.  It  is  the  picture  which  represents  the  Last  Supper  of 
Jesus  Christ  with  His  disciples  in  the  house  of  Simon. 

Q.    Where  is  this  picture  ? 

A.    In  the  refectory  of  the  monks  of  San  Giovanni  e  Paolo. 

Q.    Is  it  painted  in  fresco  or  on  wood  or  on  canvas  ? 

A.    It  is  on  canvas. 

O.    How  many  feet  does  it  measure  in  height  ? 

A.    It  may  measure  seventeen  feet. 

Q.   And  in  breadth  ? 

A.    About  thirty-nine. 

Q.  In  this  Supper  of  our  Lord,  have  you  painted  (other) 
persons  ? 

A.    Yes. 

Q.  How  many  have  you  represented  ?  And  what  is  each 
one  doing  ? 

A.  First  there  is  the  innkeeper,  Simon  ;  then,  under  him, 
a  carving  squire  whom  I  supposed  to  have  come  there  for  his 
pleasure,  to  see  how  the  service  of  the  table  is  managed.  There 
are  many  other  figures  which  I  cannot  remember,  however,  as 
it  is  a  long  time  since  I  painted  that  picture. 

Q.  Have  you  painted  other  Last  Suppers  besides  that 
one  ? 

A.    Yes. 

Q.    How  many  have  you  painted  ?      Where  are  they  ? 

A.  I  painted  one  at  Verona  for  the  reverend  monks  of 
San  Lazzaro ;  it  is  in  their  refectory.  Another  is  in  the 
refectory  of  the  reverend  brothers  of  San  Giorgio  here  in 
Venice. 

Q.  But  that  one  is  not  a  Last  Supper,  and  is  not  even 
called  the  Supper  of  Our  Lord. 

,,  A.  I  painted  another  in  the  refectory  of  San  Sebastiano  in 
Venice,  another  at  Padua  for  the  Fathers  of  the  Maddalena.  I 
do  not  remember  to  have  made  any  others. 


32  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

Q.  In  this  Supper  which  you  painted  for  San  Giovanni  e 
Paolo,  what  signifies  the  figure  of  him  whose  nose  is  bleeding? 

A.  He  is  a  servant  who  has  a  nose-bleed  from  some  acci- 
dent ? 

O.  What  signify  those  armed  men  dressed  in  the  fashion 
of  Germany,  with  halberds  in  their  hands  ? 

A.    It  is  necessary  here  that  I  should  say  a  score  of  words. 

O.    Say  them. 

A.  We  painters  use  the  same  license  as  poets  and  madmen, 
and  I  represented  those  halberdiers,  the  one  drinking,  the  other 
eating  at  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  but  both  ready  to  do  their  duty, 
because  it  seemed  to  me  suitable  and  possible  that  the  master 
of  the  house,  who  as  I  have  been  told  was  rich  and  magnifi- 
cent, should  have  such  servants. 

Q.  And  the  one  who  is  dressed  as  a  jester  with  a  parrot  on 
his  wrist,  why  did  you  put  him  into  the  picture  ? 

A.  He  is  there  as  an  ornament,  as  it  is  usual  to  insert  such 
figures. 

Q.    Who  are  the  persons  at  the  table  of  Our  Lord  ? 

A.    The  twelve  apostles. 

Q.    What  is  Saint  Peter  doing,  who  is  the  first  ? 

A.  He  is  carving  the  lamb  in  order  to  pass  it  to  the  other 
part  of  the  table. 

Q.    What  is  he  doing  who  comes  next? 

A.    He  holds  a  plate  to  see  what  Saint  Peter  will  give  him. 

Q.   Tell  us  what  the  third  is  doing. 

A.    He  is  picking  his  teeth  with  his  fork. 

Q.  And  who  are  really  the  persons  whom  you  admit  to 
have  been  present  at  this  Supper  ? 

A.  I  believe  that  there  was  only  Christ  and  His  Apostles  ; 
but  when  I  have  some  space  left  over  in  a  picture  I  adorn  it 
with  figures  of  my  own  invention. 

O.  Did  some  person  order  vou  to  paint  Germans,  buffoons, 
and  other  similar  figures  in  this  picture? 


i  THE   HOLY  OFFICE  33 

A.  No,  but  I  was  commissioned  to  adorn  it  as  I  thought 
proper ;   now  it  is  very  large  and  can  contain  many  figures. 

O.  Should  not  the  ornaments  which  you  were  accustomed 
to  paint  in  pictures  be  suitable  and  in  direct  relation  to  the 
subject,  or  are  they  left  to  your  fancy,  quite  without  discretion 
or  reason  ? 

A.  I  paint  my  pictures  with  all  the  considerations  which 
are  natural  to  my  intelligence,  and  according  as  my  intelligence 
understands  them. 

O.  Does  it  seem  suitable  to  you,  in  the  Last  Supper  of  our 
Lord,  to  represent  buffoons,  drunken  Germans,  dwarfs,  and 
other  such  absurdities  ? 

A.    Certainly  not. 

Q.   Then  why  have  you  done  it  ? 

A.  I  did  it  on  the  supposition  that  those  people  were  out- 
side the  room  in  which  the  Supper  was  taking  place. 

Q.  Do  you  not  know  that  in  Germany  and  other  countries 
infested  by  heresy,  it  is  habitual,  by  means  of  pictures  full  of 
absurdities,  to  vilify  and  turn  to  ridicule  the  things  of  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church,  in  order  to  teach  false  doctrine  to  ignorant 
people  who  have  no  common  sense  ? 

A.  I  agree  that  it  is  wrong,  but  I  repeat  what  I  have  said, 
that  it  is  my  duty  to  follow  the  examples  given  me  by  my  masters. 

Q.  Well,  what  did  your  masters  paint  ?  Things  of  this 
kind,  perhaps  ? 

A.  In  Rome,  in  the  Pope's  Chapel,  Michel  Angelo  has 
represented  Our  Lord,  His  Mother,  St.  John,  St.  Peter,  and 
the  celestial  court ;  and  he  has  represented  all  these  personages 
nude,  including  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  in  various  attitudes  not 
inspired  by  the  most  profound  religious  feeling. 

Q.    Do  you  not  understand  that   in  representing  the  Last 

Judgment,  in  which  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  clothes  are 

worn,  there  was  no  reason   for  painting  any?      But   in   these 

figures  what  is  there  that  is  not  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spirit  ? 

vol.  n. —  n 


3+  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

There  are  neither  buffoons,  dogs,  weapons,  nor  other  absurdi- 
ties. Do  vou  think  therefore,  according  to  this  or  that  view, 
that  you  did  well  in  so  painting  your  picture,  and  will  you  try 
to  prove  that  it  is  a  good  and  decent  thing? 

A.  No,  my  most  Illustrious  Sirs  ;  I  do  not  pretend  to  prm  e 
it,  but  I  had  not  thought  that  I  was  doing  wrong  ;  I  had  never- 
taken  so  many  things  into  consideration.  I  had  been  far  from 
imagining  such  a  great  disorder,  all  the  more  as  I  had  placed 
these  buffoons  outside  the  room  in  which  Our  Lord  was  sitting. 

These  things  having  been  said,  the  judges  pronounced  that 
the  aforesaid  Paolo  should  be  obliged  to  correct  his  picture 
within  the  space  of  three  months  from  the  date  of  the  repri- 
mand, according  to  the  judgments  and  decision  of  the  Sacred 
Court,  and  altogether  at  the  expense  of  the  said  Paolo. 

Et  ita  decreverunt  omni  melius  modo.  (And  so  they  decided 
everything  for  the  best !) 

The  existing  picture  proves  that  Veronese  paid  no 
attention  to  the  recommendations  of  the  Court,  for  I 
find  that  it  contains  every  figure  referred  to. 

After  this  brief  review  of  the  more  serious  offices  of 
the  Republic,  I  pass  on  to  speak  of  a  tribunal  which, 
though  in  reality  much  less  serious,  gave  itself  airs  of 
great  solemnity,  and  promulgated  a  great  number  of 
laws.  This  was  the  Court  of  the  '  Provveditori  delle 
Pompe,'  established  in  the  sixteenth  century  to  deal 
with  matters  of  dress  and  fashion.  As  far  back  as  the  end 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  'Savi,'  the  wise  men  of 
the  government,  had  feebly  deplored  the  increase  of 
luxury.  Their  plaintive  remarks  were  repeated  at 
short  intervals,  and  on  each  occasion  produced  some 
new  decree  against  foolish  and  unreasonable  expenditure. 


THE    LAST    RAYS,  ST.    MARK'S 


i  SUMPTUARY  LAWS  35 

The  length  of  women's  trains,  the  size  and  fulness  of 
people's  sleeves,  the  adornment  of  boots  and  shoes,  and 
all  similar  matters,  had  been  most  minutely  studied  by 
these  wise  gentlemen,  and  the  avogadors  had  their 
hands  full  to  make  the  regulations  properly  respected. 
One  day  a  lady  was  walking  in  the  square  of  Saint 
Mark's,  evidently  very  proud  of  the  new  white  silk 
gown  she  wore.  She  was  stopped  by  Moimenti,  Vita 
two    avogadors     who    gravely    proceeded  Priv- 

to  measure  the  amount  of  stuff  used  in  making  her 
sleeves.  It  was  far  more  than  the  law  judged 
necessary.  The  lady  and  her  tailor  —  there  were  only 
male  dressmakers  in  Venice  in  the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth centuries  —  were  both  made  to  pay  a  fine  heavy 
enough  to  make  them  regret  the  extravagance  of  their 
fancy.  I  quote  this  story  from  Signor  Moimenti. 
Marin  Sanudo  tells  of  another  similar  regulation  in  his 
journal  under  the  month  of  December  1491  :  'All 
those  who  hold  any  office  from  the  State,  and  those  who 
are  finishing  their  term  of  service,  are  forbidden  to  give 
more  than  two  dinner-parties  to  their  relations,  and  each 
of  these  dinners  shall  not  consist  of  more  than  ten  covers.' 
At  weddings  it  was  forbidden  to  give  banquets 
to  more  than  forty  guests.  Some  years  later  another 
regulation  was  issued  on  the  same  subject.  It  was 
decreed  'that  at  these  wedding  dinners  there  shall  not 
be  served  more  than  one  dish  of  roast  meats  and  one 
of  boiled  meats,  and  in  each  of  these  courses  there  shall 
not  be  more  than  three  kinds  of  meat.  Chicken  and 
pigeons  are  allowed.' 


36  GLEANINGS    FROM   HISTORY  i 

For  days  of  abstinence,  the  magistrates  take  the 
trouble  to  inform  people  what  they  may  eat,  namely, 

two  dishes  of  roast  Hsh,  two  dishes  of  boiled  fish,  an 
almond  cake,  and  the  ordinary  i  a  ins.  Of  Hsh,  sturgeon 
and  the  hsh  of  the  lake  of  Garda  are  forbidden  on  such 
days,  and  no  sweets  are  allowed  that  do  not  come  under 
one  of  the  two  heads  mentioned.  Oysters  were  not 
allowed  at  dinners  of  more  than  twenty  covers.  The 
pastry-cooks  who  made  jumbles  and  the  like,  and  the 
cooks  who  were  to  prepare  a  dinner,  were  obliged  to 
give  notice  to  the  provveditors,  accompanied  by  a 
note  of  the  dishes  to  be  served.  The  inspectors  of 
the  tribunal  had  a  right  to  inspect  the  dining-room, 
kitchen,  and  pantry,  in  order  to  verify  all  matters  that 
came  under  their  jurisdiction. 

As  if  all  this  were  not  enough,  considerable  fines  were 
imposed  on  those  who  should  adorn  the  doors  and  outer 
windows  of  their  houses  with  festoons,  or  who  should 
give  concerts  in  which  drums  and  trumpets  were  used. 
In  noting  this  regulation  in  his  journal,  Sanudo  observes 
that  the  Council  of  Ten  had  only  succeeded  in  framing 
it  after  meeting  on  three  consecutive  days  in  sittings  of 
unusual  length.  One  is  apt  to  connect  the  Council  of 
Ten  with  matters  more  tragic  than  these;  and  one 
fancies  that  the  Decemvirs  may  have  sometimes  ex- 
claimed with  Dante  — 

Le  leggi  son,  ma  chi  pon  mano  ad  esse  ? 

('There  are  laws  indeed,  but  who  enforces  them?') 
The  Council  judged  that  there  was  only  one  way  of 


i  SUMPTUARY  LAWS  37 

accomplishing  this,  namely,  to  create  a  new  magistracy, 
whose  exclusive  business  it  should  be  to  make  and 
promulgate  sumptuary  laws.  For  this  purpose  three 
nobles  were  chosen  who  received  the  title  of  Provveditori 
delle  Pompe. 

M.  Armand  Baschet,  whose  profound  learning  in 
matters  of  Venetian  law  is  beyond  dispute,  is  of  opinion 
that  the  new  tribunal  helped  Venice  to  be  great,  and 
hindered  her  from  being  extravagant.  I  shall  not 
venture  to  impugn  the  judgment  of  so  learned  a  writer, 
yet  we  can  hardly  forbear  to  smile  at  the  thought  of 
those  three  grave  nobles,  of  ripe  age  and  austere  life, 
who  sat  down  day  after  day  to  decide  upon  the  cut  of 
women's  gowns,  the  articles  necessary  to  a  bride's 
outfit,  and  the  dishes  permissible  at  a  dinner-party. 

'Women,'  said  their  regulations,  'shall  wear  clothes 
of  only  one  colour,  that  is  to  say,  velvet,  satin,  damask, 
of  Persian  silk  woven  of  one  tint;  but  exception  is 
madefrom  this  rule  for  Persian  silk  of  changing  sheen  and 
for  brocades,  but  such  gowns  must  have  no  trimming.' 

Shifts  were  to  be  embroidered  only  round  the  neck, 
and  it  was  not  allowed  to  embroider  handkerchiefs  with 
gold    or    silver    thread.     No    woman    was 

...  -  1  r    r        1  Mutinelli,  Less. 

allowed  to  carry  a  fan  made  of  feathers 
worth  more  than  four  ducats.  No  gloves  were  allowed 
embroidered  with  gold  or  silver;  no  earrings;  no 
jewellery  in  the  hair.  Plain  gold  bracelets  were  allowed 
but  must  not  be  worth  more  than  three  ducats;  gold 
chains  might  be  worth  ten.  No  low-neck  gowns 
allowed  ! 


38  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

Jewellers  and  tailors  and  dealers  in  luxuries  did  their 
best  to  elude  all  such  laws,  but  during  a  considerable 
time  they  were  not  successful,  and  it  is  probable  that 
the  temper  of  the  Venetian  ladies  was  severely  tried 
by  the  prying  and  paternal  '  Provveditori.'  The  only 
Moimenti,  Vita  women  for  whom  exceptions  were  made 
Privata.  Were  the  Dogess  and  the  other  ladtes  of 
the  Doge's  immediate  family  who  lived  with  him  in  the 
ducal  palace.  His  daughters  and  grand-daughters  were 
called  '  dozete,'  which  means  'little  dogesses'  in 
Venetian  dialect,  and  they  were  authorised  to  wear 
what  they  liked ;  but  the  Doge's  more  distant  female 
relations  had  not  the  same  privilege. 

At  the  coronation  of  Andrea  Gritti,  one  of  his  nieces 
appeared  at  the  palace  arrayed  in  a  magnificent  gown  of 
gold  brocade;  the  Doge  himself  sent  her  home  to  put 
on  a  dress  which  conformed  with  the  sumptuary  laws. 
Those  regulations  extended  to  intimate  details  of  private 
life,  and  even  affected  the  furnishing  of  a  noble's 
private  apartments.  There  were  clauses  which  forbade 
that  the  sheets  made  for  weddings  and  baptisms  should 
be  too  richly  embroidered  or  edged  with  too  costly 
lace,  or  that  the  beds  themselves  should  be  inlaid  writh 
gold,  mother-of-pearl,  or  precious  stones. 

Then  the  gondola  came  into  fashion  as  a  means  of 
getting  about  and  at  once  became  a  cause  of  great 
extravagance,  for  the  rich  vied  with  each  other  in 
adorning  their  skiffs  with  the  most  precious  stuffs  and 
tapestries,  and  inlaid  stanchions,  and  the  most  mar- 
vellous allegorical  figures. 


SUMPTUARY   LAWS 


39 


In  the  thirteenth  century  the  gondola  had  been 
merely  an  ordinary  boat,  probably  like  the  modern 
'barca'  of  the  lagoons,  over  which  an  awning  was 
rigged  as  a  protection  against  sun  and  rain.  I  he 
gondola  was   not  a  development   of  the   old-fashioned 


I*  >  W  f 


ON   THE   ZATTERE 


boat,  any  more  than  the  modern  racing  yacht  has 
developed  out  of  a  Dutch  galleon  or  a  'trabacolo'  of 
the  Adriatic.  It  had  another  pedigree;  and  I  have  no 
hesitation  in  saying,  as  one  well  acquainted  with  both, 
and  not  ignorant  of  boats  in  general,  that  the  Venetian 
gondola  is  the  caique  of  the  Bosphorus,  as  to  the  hull, 


4o  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

though  the  former  is  rowed  in  the  Italian  fashion, 
by  men  who  stand  and  swing  a  sweep  in  a  crutch, 
whereas  the  Turkish  oarsman  sits  and  pulls  a  pair  of 
sculls  of  peculiar  shape  which  slide  in  and  out  through 
greased  leathern  strops.  The  gondola,  too,  has  the 
steel  ornament  on  her  stem,  figuring  the  beak  of  a 
Roman  galley,  which  I  suspect  was  in  use  in  Con- 
stantinople before  the  Turkish  conquest,  and  which 
must  have  been  abolished  then,  for  the  very  reason  that 
it  was  Roman.  The  'felse,'  the  hood,  is  a  Venetian 
invention,  I  think,  for  there  is  no  trace  of  it  in  Turkey. 
But  the  similarity  of  the  two  boats  when  out  of  water  is 
too  close  to  be  a  matter  of  chance,  and  it  may  safely  be 
said  that  the  first  gondola  was  a  caique,  then  doubtless 
called  by  another  name,  brought  from  Constantinople 
by  some  Greek  merchant  on  his  vessel. 

In  early  times  people  went  about  on  horses  and 
mules  in  Venice,  and  a  vast  number  of  the  small  canals 
were  narrow  and  muddy  streets;  but  as  the  superior 
facilities  of  water  over  mud  as  a  means  ot  trans- 
portation became  evident,  the  lanes  were  dug  out  and 
the  islands  were  cut  up  into  an  immense  number  of 
islets,  until  the  footways  became  so  circuitous  that  the 
horse  disappeared  altogether. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  there  were  about  ten  thousand 

gondolas   in  Venice,  and  they  soon  became  a   regular 

bugbear  to  the  unhappy  Provveditori  delle 

Mutinelli,  Less.  .  r  ,  . 

Pompe,  who  were  forced  to  occupy  them- 
selves with  their  shape,  their  hangings,  the  stuff  of  which 
the  'felse'  was  made,  the  cushions,  the  carpets,  and  the 


SUMPTUARY   LAWS 


4i 


number   of  rowers.     The  latter  were   soon   limited  to 
two,   and  it  was   unlawful  to   have  more,  even  for  a 


RIO   DEL   RIMEDIO 


wedding.     The    gondola    did    not    assume    its    present 
simplicity  and  its  black  colour  till  the  end  of  the  seven- 


42  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

teenth  century,  but  it  began  to  resemble  what  we  now 
see  after  the  edict  of  1562. 

As  usual,  a  few  persons  were  exempted  from  the 
sumptuary  law.  The  Doge  went  about  in  a  gondola 
decorated  with  gold  and  covered  with  scarlet  cloth, 
and  the  foreign  ambassadors  adorned  their  skiffs  with 
the  richest  materials,  the  representatives  of  France  and 
Spain,  especially,  vying  with  each  other  in  magnificence. 
To  some  extent  the  youths  belonging  to  the  Compagnia 
della  Calza  ■ — ■  the  Hose  Club  before  mentioned  —  were 
either  exempted  from  the  law,  or  succeeded  in  evading 
it.  Naturally  enough,  the  sight  of  such  display  was 
odious  to  the  rich  noblemen  who  were  condemned  by 
law  to  the  use  of  plain  black;  and  on  the  whole,  the 
study  of  all  accounts  of  festivities  held  in  Venice,  down 
to  the  end  of  the  Republic,  goes  to  show  that  the  Prov- 
veditori  aimed  at  a  most  despotic  control  of  dress, 
habits,  and  manners,  but  that  the  results  generally  fell 
far  short  of  their  good  intentions.  They  must  have  led 
harassed  lives,  those  much-vexed  gentlemen,  not  much 
better  than  the  existence  of  'Jimmy-Legs'  on  an 
American  man-of-w7ar. 

Now  and  then,  too,  the  government  temporarily 
removed  all  restrictions  on  luxury,  as,  for  instance, 
w7hen  a  foreign  sovereign  visited  Venice;  and  then  the 
whole  city  plunged  into  a  sort  of  orgy  of  extravagance. 
This  happened  when  Henry  III.  of  France  was  the 
guest  of  the  Republic.  Such  occasions  being  known 
and  foreseen,  and  the  nobles  being  forced  by  the  Prov- 
veditori  to  save  their  money,  they  spent  it  all  the  more 


i  THE   DOGE  43 

recklessly  when  they  were  allowed  a  taste  of  liberty  — 
like  a  child  that  breaks  its  little  earthenware  savings-box 
when  it  is  full  of  pennies. 

One  naturally  returns  to  the  Doge  after  rapidly 
reviewing  such  a  legion  of  officials,  each  of  whom  was 
himself  a  part  of  the  supreme  power.  What  was  the 
Doge  doing  while  these  hundreds  of  noble  Venetians 
were  doing  everything  for  themselves,  from  directing 
foreign  politics  to  spying  upon  the  wardrobes  of  each 
other's  wives  and  auditing  the  accounts  of  one  another's 
cooks  ? 

It  would  be  hard  to  ask  a  question  more  embarrass- 
ing to  answer.  It  would  be  as  unjust  to  say  that  he 
did  nothing  as  it  would  be  untrue  to  say  that  he  had 
much  to  do.  Yet  the  Venetians  themselves  looked 
upon  him  as  a  very  important  personage  in  the 
Republic.  In  a  republic  he  was  a  sovereign,  and 
therefore  idle;   but  he  was  apparently  necessary. 

I  am  not  aware  that  any  other  republic  ever  called  its 
citizens  subjects,  or  supported  a  personage  who  received 
royal  honours,  before  whom  the  insignia  of  something 
like  royalty  were  carried  in  public,  and  who  addressed 
foreign  governments  by  his  own  name  and  title  as  if  he 
were  a  king.  But  then,  how  could  Venice,  which  was 
governed  by  an  oligarchy  chosen  from  an  aristocracy, 
which  wras  the  centre  of  a  plutocracy,  call  herself  a 
republic  ?  It  all  looks  like  a  mass  of  contradictions,  yet 
the  machinery  worked  without  breaking  down,  during 
five  hundred  years  at  a  stretch,  after  it  had  assumed  its 
ultimate  form.     If  a  modern  sociologist  had  to  define 


44  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

the  government  of  Venice,  he  would  perhaps  call  it  a 
semi-constitutional  aristocratic  monarchy,  in  which  trie- 
sovereign  was  elected  for  life  —  unless  it  pleased  the 
electors  to  depose  him. 

What  is  quite  certain  is  that  when  the  Doge  was 
a  man  of  average  intelligence,  he  must  have  been  the 
least  happy  man  in  Venice;  for  of  all  Venetian  nobles, 
there  was  none  whose  personal  liberty  was  so  restricted, 
whose  smallest  actions  were  so  closely  watched,  whose 
lightest  word  was  subject  to  such  a  terrible  censor- 
ship. 

Francesco  Foscari  was  not  allowed  to  resign  when 
he  wished  to  do  so,  nor  was  he  allowed  to  remain  on 
the  throne  after  the  Council  had  decided  to  get  rid 
of  him.  Even  after  his  death,  his  unhappy  widow  was 
not  allowed  to  bury  his  body  as  she  pleased.  Yet  his 
was  only  an  extreme  case,  because  circumstances  com- 
bined to  bring  the  existing  laws  into  play  and  to  let 
them  work  to  their  logical  result. 

From  the  moment  when  a  noble  was  chosen  to  fill 
the  ducal  throne,  he  was  bound  to  sacrifice  himself  to 
the  public  service,  altogether  and  till  he  died,  without 
regret,  or  possible  return  to  private  life,  or  any  com- 
pensation beyond  what  might  flatter  the  vanity  of  a 
vulgar  and  second-rate  nature.  Yet  the  Doges  were 
very  rarely  men  of  poor  intelligence  or  weak  character. 

At  each  election,  fresh  restrictions  were  imposed  by 
'corrections'  of  the  ducal  oath.  M.  Yriarte  says  very 
justly  that  the  tone  of  these  'corrections'  is  often  so 
dry  and  hard  that  it  looks  as  if  the  Great  Council  had 


i  THE   DOGE  45 

been  taking  measures  against  an  enemy  rather  than 
editing  rules  for  the  life  of  the  chief  of  the  State. 
He  goes  on  to  say,  however,  that  the  principle 
which  dictated  those  decrees  protected  both  the  Doge 
and  the  nobility,  and  that  the  object  at  which  each 
aimed  was  the  interest  of  the  State.  He  asks,  then, 
whether  those  binding  restrictions  ever  prevented  a 
strong  personality  from  making  itself  felt,  and  whether 
the  long  succession  of  Doges  is  nothing  but  a  list  of 
inglorious  names. 

It  may  be  answered,  I  think,  with  justice,  that  the 
Dages  of  illustrious  memory,  during  the  latter  centuries 
of  the  Republic's  existence,  had  become  famous  as 
individual  officers  before  their  elevation  to  the  throne. 
The  last  great  fighting  Doge  was  Enrico  Dandolo, 
the  conqueror  of  Constantinople,  who  died  almost  a 
hundred  years  before  the  closure  of  the  Great  Council. 
In  the  war  of  Chioggia,  Andrea  Contarini's  oath  not 
to  return  into  the  city  till  the  enemy  was  beaten  had 
the  force  of  a  fine  example,  but  the  man  himself  con- 
tributed nothing  else  to  the  most  splendid  page  in 
Venetian  history. 

There  were  Doges  who  were  good  historians  and 
writers,  others  who  have  been  brave  generals,  others  like 
Giovanni  Mocenigo  who  were  good  financiers;  but  the 
fact  of  their  having  been  Doges  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the  reputation  they  left  afterwards.  The  sovereignty, 
when  it  was  given  to  them,  was  a  chain,  not  a  sceptre, 
and  from  the  day  they  went  up  the  grand  staircase  as 
masters,  their  personal  liberty  of  thought  and   action 


46  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

was  more  completely  left  behind  than  if  they  had 
entered  by  another  door  to  spend  the  remainder  of  life 
in  the  prisons  by  the  Ponte  della  Paglia,  beyond  the 
Bridge  of  Sighs. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  Doge 

Michel   Steno  was  told   in  open   Council  to  sit  down 

and   hold   his   peace.     No  change   in   the   manners   oi 

the  counsellors  had  taken  place  sixty  years  later  when 

the    Doge    Cristoforo    Moro    objected    to 

Tassini,  under  ©  J 

'Moro:        accompanying  Pius  the  Second's  projected 
crusade  in  person,  and  was  told  by  Vittor 
Cappello  that  if  he  would  not  go  of  his  own  accord  he 
should  be  taken  by  force. 

It  is  hard  to  imagine  a  more  unpleasant  position  than 
that  of  the  chief  of  the  State.  Suppose,  for  instance, 
that  by  the  choice  of  the  Council  some  post  or  dignity 
was  to  be  conferred  on  one  of  his  relatives,  or  even  on 
one  of  his  friends;  he  was  literally  and  categorically 
forbidden  to  exhibit  the  least  satisfaction,  or  to  thank 
Yriarte.ViecFun  the  Council,  even  by  a  nod  of  the  head. 
Patr><-iet!>359>     }\e  was  to  preside   at  this,   and   at   many 

and  Marin  r  J 

sanudo.  other  ceremonies,  as  a  superbly-dressed  lay 
figure,  as  a  sort  of  allegorical  representative  of  that 
power  with  which  every  member  of  the  government 
except  himself  was  invested.  And  as  time  went  on  this 
part  he  had  to  play,  of  the  living  allegory,  was  more 
and  more  defined.  He  was  even  deprived  of  the 
title  'My  Lord,'  and  was  to  be  addressed  merely  as 
'Messer  Doge,'  'Sir  Doge.'  From  1501  onward  he  was 
forbidden  to  go  out  of  the  city,  even  for  an  hour  in  his 


i  THE   DOGE  47 

gondola,  without  the  consent  of  the  Council,  and  if  he 
disobeyed  he  had  to  pay  a  fine  of  one  hundred  ducats; 
he  was  not  allowed  to  write  a  letter,  even  to  his  wife  or 
his  children,  without  showing  it  to  at  least  one  of  his 
six  counsellors,  and  if  he  disobeyed  he  was  to  pay  a 
fine  of  two  hundred  ducats,  and  the  person,  his  wife  or 
his  own  child,  to  whom  the  letter  was  addressed,  was 
liable  to  be  exiled  for  five  years. 

After  1 52 1  the  Doge  was  never  allowed  to  speak 
without  witnesses  with  any  ambassador,  neither  with  the 
foreign  representatives  who  came  to  Venice,  nor  with 
Venetian  ambassadors  at  home  on  business  or  leave; 
and  when  he  spoke  with  any  of  them  in  public,  he  was 
warned  only  to  make  commonplace  remarks. 

The  Dogess  never  had  any  official  position  in  Venice, 
but  during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  she 
was  made  use  of  as  an  ornamental  personage  at  public 
festivals.  After  that  time  she  returned  to  the  retire- 
ment in  which  the  wives  of  the  early  Doges  had  lived. 
An  outcry  was  raised  against  the  custom  of  crowning 
her  when  she  entered  the  ducal  palace,  and  from  that 
time  forth  she  never  appeared  beside  her  husband  on 
state  occasions;  and  if  any  foreign  ambassador,  sup- 
posing that  he  was  acting  according  to  the  rules  of 
ordinary  court  etiquette,  asked  to  be  presented  to  her, 
she  was  bound  to  refuse  his  visit. 

Everything  in  the  life  of  the  Doge  was  regulated  by 
the  Great  Council.  That  august  assembly  once  even 
remonstrated  with  the  so-called  sovereign  because  the 
Dogess  bore  him  too  many  children.    If  any  one  hesitates 


48  GLEANINGS    FROM   HISTORY  i 

to  believe  these  amazing  statements  he  may  consult 
Signor  Molmenti's  recent  historical  work,  La  Dogaressa, 
which  is  beyond  criticism  in  point  of  accuracy. 

At  certain  fixed  times  the  Doge  was  allowed  the 
relaxation  of  shooting,  but  with  so  many  restrictions 
and  injunctions  that  the  sport  must  have  been  intoler- 
ably irksome.  He  was  allowed  or,  more  strictly  speak- 
ing, was  ordered  to  proceed  for  this  purpose,  and  about 
Christmas  time,  to  certain  islets  in  the  lagoons,  where 
wild  ducks  bred  in  great  numbers.  On  his  return  he 
was  obliged  to  present  each  member  of  the  Great  Council 
with  five  ducks.  This  was  called  the  gift  of  the  'Oselle,' 
that  being  the  name  given  by  the  people  to  the  birds  in 
question.  In  1521,  about  five  thousand  brace  of  birds 
had  to  be  killed  or  snared  in  order  to  fulfil  this  require- 
ment; and  if  the  unhappy  Doge  was  not  fortunate 
enough,  with  his  attendants,  to  secure  the  required 
number,  he  was  obliged  to  provide  them  by  buying 
them  elsewhere  and  at  any  price,  for  the  claims  of  the 
Great  Council  had  to  be  satisfied  in  any  case.  This 
was  often  an  expensive  affair. 

There  was  also  another  personage  who  could  not 
have  derived  much  enjoyment  from  the  Christmas  shoot- 
ing. This  was  the  Doge's  chamberlain,  whose  duty  it 
was  to  see  to  the  just  distribution  of  the  game,  so  that 
each  bunch  of  two-and-a-half  brace  should  contain  a 
fair  average  of  fat  and  thin  birds,  lest  it  should  be  said 
that  the  Doge  showed  favour  to  some  members  of  the 
Council  more  than  to  others. 

By  and  by  a  means  was  sought  of  commuting  this 


i  THE   DOGE  49 

annual  tribute  of  ducks.  The  Doge  Antonio  Grimani 
requested  and  obtained  permission  to  coin 

1         .  i  /■  r  Portrait  of 

a  medal  of  the  value  of  a  quarter  of  a  Antonio  Grimani 
ducat,  equal  to  about  four  shillings  or  one  r^J^,  Titian ; 
dollar,   and  to  call  it  'a   Duck,'   'Osella,'        Saiadeiu 

...  •        -r      i       i  •  11  Quattro  Porte. 

whereby  it  was  signified  that  it  took  the 
place  of  the  traditional  bird.  He  engraved  upon  his 
medal  figures  of  Peace  and  Justice,  with  the  motto 
justitia  et  Pax  osculatae  sunt,'  '  justice  and  Peace 
have  kissed  one  another,'  in  recollection  of  the  sen- 
tence he  had  undergone  nineteen  years  previously 
as  Admiral  of  the  fleet  defeated  at  Parenzo.  In 
1575  the  Doge  Luigi  Mocenigo  engraved  upon 
his  Osella  the  following  inscription  referring  to  the 
victory  of  Lepanto:  'Magnae  navalis  victoriae  Dei 
gratia  contra  Turcos';  the  reverse  bears  the  arms  of 
the  Mocenigo  family,  a  rose  with  five  petals.  Later, 
in  1632,  the  Doge  Francesco  Erizzo  was  the  first  to 
replace  his  own  effigy  kneeling  before  Saint  Mark  by 
a  lion.  In  1688  Francesco  Morosini  coined  an  Osella 
bearing  on  the  obverse  a  sword,  with  the  motto  'Non 
abstinet  ictu,'  and  on  the  reverse  a  hand  bearing 
weapons,  with  the  motto  'Quern  non  exercuit  arcus.' 
In  1684  Marcantomo  Giustiniani  issued  an  Osella 
showing  a  winged  lion  rampant,  bearing  in  the  one  paw 
a  single  palm,  and  in  the  other  a  bunch  of  palms, 
with  the  motto  'Et  solus  et  simul,'  meaning  that 
Venice  would  be  victorious  either  alone  or  joined  with 
allies. 

The  successor  of  Antonio  Grimani,  Andrea  Gritti, 

VOL.  II.  —  E 


5o  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  i 

chose  for  his  Osella  to  have  himself  represented  as  kneel- 
ing before  Saint  Mark;    the  reverse  bore 

Andrea  Gritti,      ,  .  •   1       1         1 

praying,        "is  name  with  the  date. 
Tintoretto;  Saia       ]}ut  fresn  trouble  now  arose.     It  came 

del  Collegw. 

to  pass  that  some  nobles  sold  their  medals 
or  used  them  for  money,  and  disputes  even  took  place 
as  to  the  true  value  of  the  ducal  present.  The  Council 
of  Ten  was  obliged'to  examine  seriously  into  the  affair. 
As  it  appeared  certain  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
avoid  the  use  of  medals  as  money,  it  was  decided  to  re- 
place them  definitely  by  a  coin  having  regular  currency. 


MOUTH  OF  THE 


II 


GLEANINGS    FROM  VENETIAN  CRIMINAL 
HISTORY 


The  records  of  the  different  tribunals  of  Venice  are  a 
mine  of  interesting  information,  and  it  is  to  be  wondered 
that  no  student  has  devoted  a  separate  volume  to  the 
subject.  I  shall  only  attempt  to  offer  the  reader  a  few 
gleanings  which  have  come  under  my  hand,  and  which 
may  help  to  give  an  impression  of  the  later  days  of  the 
Republic. 

5* 


52  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  n 

There  were  two  distinct  classes  of  criminals  in  Venice,  as 
elsewhere       namely,  professional  criminals,  who  helped 

each  other  and  often  escaped  justice;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  those  who  committed  isolated  crimes  under  the 
influence  of  strong  passions,  and  who  generally  expiated 
their  misdeeds  in  prison  or  on  the  scaffold. 

Though  the  professionals  were  infinitely  more  dan- 
gerous than  the  others,  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  they 
enjoyed  the  same  sort  of  popularity  which  was  bestowed 
upon  daring  highwaymen  in  England  in  the  coaching 
days.  They  were  called  the  '  Bravi,'  they  were  very 
rarely  Venetians  by  birth,  and  they  had  the  singular 
audacity  to  wear  a  costume  of  their  own,  which  was 
something  between  a  military  uniform  and  a  mediaeval 
hunting-dress.  One  might  almost  call  them  condottieri 
in  miniature.  They  sold  their  services  to  cautious 
persons  who  wished  to  satisfy  a  grudge  without  getting 
into  trouble  with  the  police,  and  they  drew  round  them 
all  the  good-for-nothings  in  the  country.  'Bandits'  — 
that  is,  in  the  true  interpretation  of  the  word,  those 
persons  whom  the  Republic  had  banished  from  Venetian 
territory  —  frequently  returned,  and  remained  unmo- 
lested during  some  time  under  the  protection  of  one  of 
these  bravi.  The  most  terrible  and  extravagant  crimes 
were  committed  in  broad  day,  and  the  popular  fancy 
surrounded  its  nefarious  heroes  with  a  whole  cycle  of 
legends  calculated  to  inspire  terror. 

The  government  cast  about  for  some  means  of 
checking  the  evil,  and  hit  upon  one  worthy  of  the 
Inquisitors    of   State.     The    simple    plan    consisted    in 


II 


CRIMINAL   HISTORY 


53 


giving  a  free  pardon  for  all  his  crimes  to  any  bravo 
who  would  kill  another.  We  even  find  that  a  patrician 
of  the  great  house  of  Quirini,  who  had  been  exiled  for 
killing  one  of  Titian's  servants,  obtained  leave  to  come 
back  and  live  peacefully  in  Venice  by  assassinating  a 


THE    RIALTO   AT   NIGHT 


bravo.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  what  crimes  could  be 
committed  under  this  law,  and  the  government  soon 
recognised  the  mistake  and  repealed  it  in  pmeiu,  Raccoita 
1549,  in  order  to  protect  'the  dignity  of  diLe^iCrim- 
the  Republic,  and  the  goods  and  lives  of  its  subjects. ' 
Thereafter  the  bravi  and  the  bandits  led  more  quiet 
lives,  and  returned  to  their  former  occupations. 


54 


GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 


ii 


There  existed  at  that  time  a  statue  of  a  hunchback 
modelled  by  the  sculptor  Pietro  di  Salo,  which  had  been 
used  to  support  a  ladder,  or  short  staircase,  by  which 
the  public  criers  ascended  the  column  of  the  Rialto,  in 
order  to  proclaim  banns  of  marriage  and  other  matters 


FROM  THE  BALCONY  OF  THE  DUCAL  PALACE 


which  were  to  be  made  public.  From  1541  to  1545 
thieves  were  usually  sentenced  to  be  flogged  through 
the  city  from  Saint  Mark's  to  the  Rialto,  where  the 
ceremony  ended  by  their  being  obliged  to  kiss  the 
statue  of  the  hunchback.  In  order  to  get  rid 
of  this  degrading  absurdity  a  small  column  was  set 
up    near   by,    surmounted    by    a    cross,    in    order   that 


II 


CRIMINAL   HISTORY 


55 


'sinners   might  undergo  their  sentence  in   a  Christian 
spirit.' 

On  the  sixteenth  of  December  1560,  the  Council  of 
Ten  met  to  discuss  the  question  of  the  bravi.  It  was  now 
admitted  that  the  government  no  longer  had  isolated 
criminals  to  deal  with,  but  regular  bands  of  ruffians  con- 


W 
if 


.  J<"L~3t» 


TMWBPiH 


Its    *J&m%t3g»\ 


THE   COLUMNS,    PIAZZETTA 


tinually  on  the  look-out  for  adventures.  The  Ten  pub- 
lished an  edict  by  which  all  bandits  were  formally  warned 
that  any  one  who  exercised  the  profession  of  a  bravo, 
whether  a  subject  of  the  Republic  or  not,  would  be  taken 
and  led  in  irons  to  the  place  between  the  columns  of  the 
Piazzetta,  where  his  nose  and  ears  would  be  carved  off. 
He  would  then  be  further  sentenced  to  five  years  at  the 
oar  on  board  one  of  the  State  galleys,  unless  some  physical 


56  GLEANINGS   FROM  HISTORY  n 

defect  made  this  impossible  for  him,  in  which  case  he  \\  as 
Horatio  Brown,  to  have  one  hand  chopped  off  and  to  be  ini- 
Venetian studies.  prjSoned  for  ten  years.  In  passing,  I  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that  life  between  decks  on  a  State 
galley  cannot  have  been  pleasant,  since  five  years  of 
it  were  considered  equivalent  to  the  loss  of  a  hand 
and    ten   years    of   imprisonment. 

These  terrific  penalties  inspired  little  or  no  fear,  for 
the  bravi  were  infinitely  quicker  and  cleverer  than  the 
sbirri  of  the  government,  and  were  very  rarely  caught. 
Besides,  they  had  powerful  supporters  and  secure  refuges 
from  which  they  could  defy  justice,  for  they  were 
sheltered  and  protected  in  the  foreign  embassies,  where 
they  knew  how  to  make  themselves  useful  as  spies,  and 
occasionally  as  professional  assassins,  and  it  was  not  an 
uncommon  thing  to  see  a  sbirro  standing  before  the 
French  or  the  Spanish  embassy  and  looking  up  at  a 
window  whence  some  well-known  bravo  smiled  down 
on  him,  waved  his  hat,  and  addressed  him  with  ironical 
politeness.  The  picture  vividly  recalls  visions  of  a  cat 
on  top  of  a  garden  wall,  calmly  grinning  at  the  frantic 
terrier  below. 

Then,  too,  the  bravi  were  patronised  by  the 
'signorotti'  of  the  mainland,  a  set  of  rich,  turbulent, 
and  licentious  land-owners,  who  could  not  call  them- 
selves Venetian  nobles  and  would  not  submit  to  be 
burghers,  •  but  set  themselves  up  as  knights,  and 
lived  in  more  or  less  fortified  manors  from  which 
they  could  set  the  police  at  defiance.  They  em- 
ployed the  bravi  in  all  sorts  of  nefarious  adventures, 


ii    •  CRIMINAL   HISTORY  57 

which  chiefly  tended  to  the  satisfaction  of  their  brutal 
tastes. 

It  was  a  second  period  of  transition,  as  Molmenti 
very  justly  says,  and  in  the  beginning  of  the  decadence 
the  knight  had  already  ceased  to  be  knightly.  Those 
rough  lordlinp-s  were  neither  without  fear  nor  without 
reproach,  says  the  learned  Italian  writer,  but  were 
altogether  without  remorse,  and  if  they  were  ever  bold 
it  was  only  in  breaking  the  law.  From  time  Tassini,  Con- 
to  time  one  of  them  was  caught  perpetrating  da""e  LilP'tal'- 
some  outrageous  crime,  and  was  dragged  barefooted,  in  a 
long  black  shirt  and  blackcap,  to  the  scaffold, as  an  awful 
example,  there  to  be  flogged,  hanged,  and  quartered. 
Such  horrors  had  long  ceased  to  have  any  effect  in  an  age 
that  saw  blood  run  in  rivers.  By  way  of  increasing  the 
disgrace  of  a  shameful  death,  a  gibbet  was  set  up  which 
was  so  high  that  the  victim  had  to  mount  thirty-two 
steps,  and  it  was  painted  scarlet.  The  first  miscreant 
who  adorned  it  was  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  sbirri 
himself,  who  had  used  his  position  to  protect  a  whole 
gang  of  thieves  with  whom  he  divided  the  plunder. 

I  abridge  from  Signor  Molmenti's  work  the  follow- 
ing; story,  in  which  more  than  one  type  of 

°       .     J  m  J  r  Molmenti, 

the   sixteenth-century   criminal    makes    his    BandM  e  Bravi. 
appearance. 

The  village  of  Illasi  is  situated  in  a  rich  valley  in 
the  territory  of  Verona.  At  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century  its  castle  was  inhabited  by  a  certain  Count 
Geronimo  and  his  beautiful  lady,  Ginevra.  From  time 
to  time  the  couple  introduced  a  little  variety  into  their 


58  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  n 

solitude  by  receiving  Virginio  Orsini  who,  though 
a  Roman  noble,  was  in  the  service  of  Venice  as 
Governor  of  Verona.  He  was,  I  believe,  a  first 
cousin  of  that  Paolo  Giordano  Orsini  who  murdered 
his  wife  Isabella  de'  Medici  in  order  to  marry  Vittoria 
Accoramboni.  I  have  told  the  story  at  length  in 
another  work. 

Virginio,  the  Governor,  fell  in  love  with  the 
Countess  Ginevra  before  long;  but  she,  though 
strongly  attracted  to  him,  tried  hard  to  resist  him, 
would  not  read  his  letters,  and  turned  a  deaf  ear  to 
his    pleadings. 

On  a  certain  Saturday  night,  when  Count  Gero- 
nimo  was  away  from  home  and  Ginevra  sat  by  the 
fire  in  her  own  chamber,  having  already  supped  and 
said  her  prayers,  the  curtain  of  the  door  was  raised  and 
two  men  came  in.  The  one  was  Grifo,  the  man-at- 
arms  whom  the  Count  trusted  and  had  left  to  guard 
her;  the  other  was  Orsini.  Ginevra  sprang  to  her  feet, 
asking  how  the  Governor  dared  to  cross  her  threshold. 

'Madam,'  he  said,  coming  near,  'as  you  would  not 
answer  my  letters,  I  determined  to  tell  you  face  to  face 
that  if  you  will  not  hear  me  you  will  be  my  ruin.' 

'Sir,'  answered  the  Countess,  'that  is  not  the  way 
to  address  a  lady  of  my  condition.  You  are  basely 
betraying  my  noble  husband,  who  entertains  for  you 
both  friendship  and  esteem.' 

Here  Grifo  joined  in  the  conversation  and  began  to 
persuade  the  Countess  that  every  noble  lady  of  the 
time    had    her    'confederate    knight.'      No    doubt    he 


ii  CRIMINAL   HISTORY  59 

knew  that  she  loved  Orsini  in  spite  of  herself,  and 
when  he  had  done  speaking  he  went  away,  and  the  two 
were  alone  together  in  the  night. 

An  hour  later  Virginio  took  his  leave  of  her,  and 
now  he  told  her.  with  words  of  comfort  that  he  would 
presently  send  her  poison  by  the  hand  of  Grifo,  that 
she  might  do  away  with  her  husband;  for  otherwise  he 
must  soon  learn  the  truth  and  avenge  himself  on  them 
all  three.     But  Ginevra  was  already  stung  by  remorse. 

'I  have  dishonoured  my  husband  for  you,'  she 
answered.  '  But  I  will  not  do  the  deed  you  ask  of 
me.  It  is  better  that  I  should  myself  die  than  that  I 
should  do  murder.' 

'In  that  case,'  answered  Orsini,  '  I  myself  must  put 
him    beyond    the    possibility    of   harming   you.' 

Thereupon  he  left  her;  but  she  was  tormented  by 
remorse,  until  at  last  she  went  to  her  husband  and  told 
him  all,  and  entreated  him  to  kill  her.  He  would  not 
believe  her,  but  thought  she  had  gone  mad,  though  she 
repeated  her  story  again  and  again;  and  at  last  he  rose 
and  went  and  found  Grifo,  the  traitor,  and  dragged  him 
to  her  room. 

'Is  it  true,'  she  asked,  'that  you  brought  the 
Governor   here   to    my   chamber   unawares?' 

The  man  denied  it  with  an  oath.  Then  Ginevra 
snatched  up  a  dagger  and  set  the  point  at  Grifo's  breast. 
He  saw  that  he  was  lost,  and  told  the  truth,  and  then 
and  there  the  woman  whose  ruin  he  had  wrought  did 
justice  on  him  and  was  avenged,  and  stabbed  him  again 
and  again,  that  he  died. 


60  GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  n 

There  ends  the  story,  for  that  is  all  we  know. 
After  that  the  chronicle  is  silent,  ominously  silent;  and 
when  the  castle  of  Illasi  was  dismantled  a  walled  niche 
was  found  in  one  of  the  towers,  and  within  the  niche 
there  was  a  woman's  skeleton.  That  is  known,  surely; 
hut  that  the  bones  were  those  of  the  Countess  Ginevra 
there  is  no  proof  to  show. 

I  should  say  that  Grifo  belonged  to  the  type  of  the 

bravi,  so  that  the  crimes  of  passion  which  his  betrayal 

MoimenH,      caused  were  connected,  through  him,  with 

Vecciue  storie.  those  0f  tne  professional  type.  But  others 
were  committed,  then  as  now,  in  passion,  quick  or  slow. 
As  an  example  of  them,  here  is  a  story  from  another  of 
Signor   Molmenti's    exhaustive   works. 

It  is  first  mentioned  by  the  Bishop  Pietro  Bollani  in 
a  letter  addressed  to  his  noble  friend  Vincenzo  Dandolo, 
in  the  month  of  July   1602: — ■ 

'A  certain  Sanudo,  who  lives  in  the  Rio  della  Croce, 
in  the  Giudecca,  made  his  wife  go  to  confession  day 
before  yesterday  evening;  and  she  was  a  Cappello  by 
birth.  During  the  following  night,  at  about  the  fifth 
hour  (one  o'clock  in  the  morning  at  that  season  accord- 
ing to  the,  old  Italian  sun-time),  he  killed  her  with  a 
dagger-thrust  in  the  throat.  He  says  that  she  was 
unfaithful,  but  every  one  believes  that  she  was  a 
saint.' 

We  learn  that  the  poor  woman  was  thirty-six,  and 
that  Giovanni  Sanudo  had  been  married  to  her  eighteen 
years.  The  Council  of  Ten  ordered  his  arrest,  but  he 
had  already  escaped  beyond  the  frontier,  and  he  was 


IT 


CRIMINAL   HISTORY 


61 


condemned    to    death    in    default    and    a    prize   of  two 
thousand  ducats  was  offered  for  his  head. 


£» 


AA 


J'*  I 


xJ  mi  «!  in  J  «^^^i,w-,.  **/3tT^v.'i 


^W"*.-;1 


W.[:j*S 


« 


Willi 


THE    SALUTE   FROM    THE   GIUDECCA 


He    had    left    five    children    in    Venice,    three    boys 
and  two  girls;   and  the  oldest,  a  daughter  christened 


62  GLEANINGS    FROM    HISTORY  n 

Sanuda,  addressed  a  petition  to  the  Ten  which  is  worth 
translating :  — 

Must  Serene  Prince  (the  Doge),  Most  Illustrious  Sirs  (the 
Ten),  and  most  merciful  my  Masters  (the  Counsellors,  the 
High  Chancellor,  and  the  Avogadors)  : 

Never  did  unfortunate  petitioners  come  to  the  feet  of  \our 
Serenity  and  of  your  most  excellent  and  most  clement  Coun- 
cil, more  worthy  of  pity  than  we,  Sanuda,  Livio,  Aloi'se, 
Franceschino  and  Livio  second,  the  children  of  Messer 
Giovanni  Sanudo ;  misfortune  has  fallen  upon  our  house 
because  our  father  having  been  accused  of  taking  our  mother's 
life,  the  justice  of  your  Serenity  and  of  your  most  excellent 
Council  has  condemned  him  to  death  ;  wherefore  we,  poor 
innocent  children,  have  lost  at  once  our  father  and  our  mother, 
and  all  our  possessions  ;  and  we  assure  you  with  tears  that  we 
should  have  to  beg  our  bread  unless  certain  charitable  souls 
helped  us.  Therefore  I,  the  unhappy  Sanuda,  who  have 
reached  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  and  my  brothers  and  sisters 
who  are  younger  than  I,  shall  all  be  given  over  to  the  most 
abject  poverty  and  exposed  to  the  greatest  dangers  unless  your 
Serenity  and  your  most  excellent  Council  will  consent  to  help 
us  for  the  love  of  religion  and  justice.  And  so,  in  order  to 
prevent  five  poor  and  honest  children  of  noble  blood  from 
perishing  thus  miserably,  we  prostrate  ourselves  at  the  feet  of 
your  Serenity  and  of  your  most  Illustrious  Lordships,  imploring 
you,  by  the  Passion  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  allow  our 
unhappy  father  to  come  back  to  Venice  for  two  years,  that  he 
may  provide  for  the  safety  of  his  family  and  especially  of  his 
daughters,  whose  honour  is  exposed  to  such  grave  peril  in  that 
state  of  neglect  in  which  they  are  now  living.  We  pray  that 
the  good  God  may  grant  your  Serenity  and  your  Lordships 
long  and  happy  life. 

The  Council  of  Ten  was  apparently  moved  by  the 


ii  CRIMINAL  HISTORY  63 

appeal.  It  answered  the  petition  by  the  following 
resolution :  — 

'The  case  of  Sanuda,  Livio,  Aloise,  Franceschino, 
and  Livio  second,  brothers  and  sisters,  the  children  of 
Giovanni  Sanudo,  condemned  to  death  by  this  Council 
on  July  twenty-ninth,  is  so  serious;  the  petition  of 
these  poor  children  is  so  humble,  so  honest  and  so 
reasonable,  that  it  behooves  the  piety  and  clemency  of 
our  Council  to  grant  the  said  Giovanni  Sanudo  a  safe- 
conduct,  good  for  two  years,  in  order  that  during 
this  period  he  may  provide  for  the  future  of  his 
family.' 

Sanudo  came  back,  and  before  the  two  years  had 
expired  he  obtained  a  prolongation  of  the  grace  for  two 
years  more,  at  the  end  of  which  time  he  presented 
another  petition  worded  in  the  same  manner,  which 
was  also  granted;  and  so  on  from  two  years  to  two 
years  until  162 1,  nineteen  years  after  the  crime,  he 
being  still  technically  under  sentence  of  death. 

Now,  however,  he  obtained  a  formal  pardon  from 
his  wife's  family,  the  Cappello.  This  curious  document 
reads  as  follows  :  — 

In  the  name  of  God  and  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  March 
thirtieth,  1621. 

I,  Carlo  Cappello,  son  of  the  late  Pietro  Cappello,  consid- 
ering the  weakness  and  the  lamentable  vicissitudes  to  which 
humanity  is  subject,  and  desirous  of  forgiving  the  shortcomings 
and  misdeeds  of  others,  in  order  that  the  Lord  our  God  mav 
protect  me  also,  and  desiring,  too,  the  full  pardon  of  every  sin: 
do  forgive  my  brother-in-law,  Giovanni  Sanudo,  the  offences 


6+  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  n 

he  may  have  committed  against  me,  promising  henceforth   u> 
bear  him  neither  hatred  nor  malice,  and   I   pray  God  to  grant 

us  buth  a  good  Easter  and  the  pardon  of  every  sin. 

(Signed)     Carlo  Cappello. 
Pietro  Cappello. 

Livio  Cappello. 

Having  obtained  forgiveness  of  his  wife's  familv, 
Giovanni  Sanudo  now  looked  about  for  a  means  of 
extorting  a  final  pardon  from  the  Council  of  Ten. 
There  existed  in  the  Venetian  states  a  small  town, 
called  Sant'  Omobono,  which  had  received,  as  the 
reward  of  some  ancient  service  rendered  to  the 
Republic,  the  privilege  of  setting  at  liberty  every  year 
two  outlaws  or  two  bravi.  Sanudo  succeeded  in 
winning  the  good  graces  of  the  municipality,  and  was 
then  presented  by  the  mayor  and  aldermen  to  the 
Signory  as  one  of  the  yearlv  candidates  for  a  free 
pardon.  The  Council  of  Ten  then  permanently  ratified 
its  decree  of  immunity,  and  Giovanni  Sanudo  was  once 
more  a  free  man.  Considering  the  usual  character  of 
the  Council,  it  is  hard  not  to  surmise  that  it  had  found 
some  cause  for  regretting  the  sentence  it  had  passed. 
The  poor  murdered  woman  had  confessed  and  received 
absolution  before  death :  may  we  not  reasonably 
suppose  that,  after  all,  there  had  been  something  to 
confess  ? 

There  is  ground  for  believing  it  possible  that 
Shakespeare  may  have  used  the  original  murder  as  part 
of  the  groundwork  of  his  Othello.  If  we  compare  the 
dates  and  glance  at  the  history  of  Italian  literature,  we 


ii  CRIMINAL   HISTORY  65 

may  reasonably  conclude  that  Shakespeare,  after  per- 
haps planning  his  tragedy  on  a  tale  of  Giraldi's,  was 
much  struck  by  the  details  of  Sanudo's  crime,  and 
especially  by  the  murderer's  wish  that  his  wife  should 
confess  before  dying. 

Mr.  Rawdon  Brown  supposed  the  poet  to  have  used 
another  incident,  related  by  Marin  Sanudo  in  his 
voluminous  journal,  but  the  hypothesis  involves  an 
anachronism.  Othello  is  thought  by  good  authorities 
to  have  been  first  played  in  London  in  the  autumn  of 
1602,  only  a  few  months  after  the  crime  in  the 
Giudecca;  whereas  Mr.  Rawdon  Brown's  heroine  was 
not  murdered  until  thirteen  years  later. 

The  legend  of  the  Fornaretto  belongs  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sixteenth  century,  a  hundred  years  earlier. 
Travellers  will  remember  being  told  by  their  guides  how 
a  poor  little  baker's  boy,  who  was  carrying  bread  to 
a  customer  on  a  January  morning  in  1507,  stumbled 
over  the  body  of  a  noble  who  had  been  stabbed  by  an 
unknown  hand.  The  sheath  of  the  dagger  lay  on  the 
pavement,  and  the  boy  was  imprudent  enough  to  pick 
it  up  and  put  it  into  his  pocket,  for  it  was  richly 
damascened  and  very  handsome.  The  police  found  it 
upon  him,  it  was  considered  to  be  conducive  circum- 
stantial evidence,  the  poor  boy  confessed  under  torture 
that  he  had  committed  the  crime,  and  he  was  hanged  on 
his  own  confession. 

A  few  days  later  the  real  murderer  was  arrested 
and  convicted;  and  thereafter,  in  recollection  of  the 
tragic    injustice    that    had    been    done,    whenever    the 


66  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  n 

magistrates  were  about  to  pass  a  sentence  of  death,  they 
were  admonished  to  remember  the  poor  Fornaretto. 

By  way  of  making  the  story  more  complete,  the 
guide  usually  adds  that  the  little  lamp  which  always 
burns  before  an  image  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  on  one 
side  of  the  Basilica  was  lighted  as  an  offering  in  ex- 
piation of  the  judicial  murder,  and  that  it  is  for  the 
same  reason  that  a  bell  is  rung  during  twenty  minutes 
on  the  anniversary  of  the  baker  boy's  execution. 

Strangely  enough,  there  is  hardly  a  word  of  truth  in 
this  story.  The  only  record  in  the  archives  of  the  Ten 
which  faintly  suggests  it  is  the  trial  and  execution  of  a 
baker  named  Pietro  Fusiol,  who  had  murdered  a  man 
of  the  people  in  January  1507,  and  there  is  no  refer- 
ence to  any  mistake  on  the  part  of  the  court.  The 
ringing  of  the  bell  and  the  little  lamp  which  burns  day 
and  night  before  the  image,  are  a  sort  of  ex  voto  offer- 
ings left  by  certain  seamen  in  recollection  of  a  terrible 
storm   from   which   they   escaped. 

I  pass  on  to  speak  of  the  political  prisoners  of  the 

Republic,  who  were  not  by  any  means  all  treated  alike, 

since  some  of  them  were  confined  in  places 

Dr.  Ilehirich  l 

Thode,Der Ring  of  tolerable  comfort,  whereas  others  were 
treated  little  better  than  common  criminals. 
The  story  of  Cristoforo  Frangipane  shows  that  political 
delinquents  were  not  judged  according  to  any  parti- 
cular code,  and  that  each  case  was  examined  as  being 
entirely  independent  from  any  other. 

I  must  recall  to  the  reader  that  during  the  league  of 
Cambrai  the  Emperor  Maximilian   was   commissioned 


n  POLITICAL   PRISONERS  67 

to     win     back     Friuli,     Istria,     and     other     provinces 
annexed    by    the    Republic.     Though    the    league    had 
been   formed    in   great   haste,   Venice  was    Venice  defying 
not    taken    by    surprise,    for    it    had    long   Europe, Paima 

,  ,      T-,  &    Giovane;  Sala 

been  apparent  that  the  European  powers  de-  del  Pregadi, 
sired  her  destruction  and  dismemberment.  a  ^a 
During  the  war  which  followed  the  Venetian  army 
was  at  one  time  under  the  orders  of  Bartolomeo 
d'  Alviano,  and  that  of  the  Emperor  was  commanded 
by  Cristoforo  Frangipane.  Now  the  Frangipane 
family  held  lands  in  fee  from  Venice  as  well  as  from 
the  Emperor,  and  owed  feudal  service  to  both ;  so 
that  the  Republic  was  justified  in  considering  Cristoforo 
as  a  traitor  according  to  feudal  law,  since  he  was  in 
command  of  a  hostile  army. 

A  learned  German  student,  Doctor  Heinrich  Thode, 
has  discovered  and  told  with  great  charm  the  follow- 
ing  story  concerning  the  imperial  general.  In  1892, 
Doctor  Thode  being  then  in  Venice,  certain  peasants  of 
the  village  of  Osopo,  near  Pordenone,  showed  him  a  gold 
ring  of  marvellous  workmanship  and  in  the  style  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  which  they  had  found  in  a  field. 
The  ring  consisted  of  two  spirals,  one  within  the  other, 
which  could  be  taken  apart,  so  that  a  lock  of  hair  or 
a  relic  could  be  placed  between  them.  On  the  outer 
spiral  of  the  ring  were  engraved  the  words,  'Myt 
Wyllen  deyn  eygen,'  which  may  be  translated,  *  By 
mine  own  will  thine  own.'  Doctor  Thode  bought  the 
ring,  but  for  a  long  time  could  make  nothing  of  it. 
At  last,   however,   his   industry  was   rewarded   by  the 


68  GLEANINGS    FROM    HISTORY  n 

discovery  of  an  interesting  passage  in  the  almost  in- 
exhaustible diary  of  Mann  Sanudo,  of  which  I  shall 
abridge   the   substance   as    much    as    possible. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  the 
Emperor  Maximilian  met  in  Augsburg  a  very  beauti- 
ful girl  named  Apollonia  von  Lange,  with  whom  he 
fell  deeplv  in  love.  He  caused  her  to  come  to  the 
Court  of  Vienna,  where  she  behaved  so  admirably  that, 
according  to  the  chronicler,  all  the  Austrian  nobles 
wished  to  marry  her.  As  a  matter  of  fact  she  was 
married  in  1503  to  the  Count  of  Lodron,  who  happens 
to  be  the  very  person  whom  the  Cappelletti  of  Verona 
wished  to  marry  to  their  Juliet  in  spite  of  her  promise 
to  Romeo  Montecchi. 

The  Count  of  Lodron  died  soon  after  his  marriage, 
leaving  no  children.  The  Emperor  continued  to  ex- 
tend to  the  young  widow  his  honourable  protection, 
and  in  1514  he  married  her  to  his  favourite  general 
Cristoforo  Frangipane.  It  was  no  doubt  on  this 
occasion  that  the  warrior  received  from  her  the  ring  of 
which  the  motto  answered  a  question  that  had  often 
been  on  his  lips.  He  might,  indeed,  reasonably  have 
supposed  that  she  was  marrying  him  in  deference  to 
the  Emperor's  wishes;  he  must  have  asked  her  if  this 
were  true,  and  no  doubt  more  than  once  she  answered, 
'Of  my  own  will  I  am  thine  own.'  The  marriage  had 
scarcely  taken  place  when  Frangipane  was  obliged  to 
take  command  of  the  imperial  army  and  to  leave  his 
wife.  The  first  battle  of  the  campaign  was  fought  near 
Pordenone  in  the  Venetian  territory.     Marin  Sanudo 


POLITICAL   PRISONERS 


69 


narrates  that  on  that  clay  Frangipane  lost  a    precious 


t 


I 


<  ^aH fc*B imj  ?  M 


9  ffc 

i    h\  d 


j\| 


.iT 


0 


A  GARDEN    WALL 


relic,  a  fact  which  he  considered  to  be  of  bad  augury 
for  the  future. 

Only    a    few    days    later,    when    reconnoitring    the 


7o  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  n 

position  of  the  enemy,  he  was  climbing  over  a  boulder 
which  overlooked  the  valley.  It  either  gave  way  with 
him,  or  else  some  large  piece  of  stone  rolled  against 
him  and  threw  him  down.  The  accident  was  seen 
from  a  distance,  and  it  was  at  once  reported  to  Venice 
that  he  was  dead.  But  he  was  only  wounded,  and 
was  carried  in  a  litter  to  Goritz,  whither  his  wife 
hastened  at  once.  Under  her  loving  care  he  soon 
recovered,  but  before  he  was  able  to  ride  again  the 
Venetians  took  the  town  and  made  him  prisoner.  He 
was  conveyed  to  Venice,  and  was  confined  in  the  tower 
of  the  ducal  palace  which  overlooked  the  Ponte  della 
Paglia.  In  his  confinement  he  kept  up  a  constant 
correspondence  with  his  wife,  which,  it  is  needless  to 
say,  was  carefully  examined  by  the  government;  every 
letter  which  came  or  went  was  read  aloud  before  the 
Senate,  so  that  Marin  Sanudo  had  ample  opportunity  to 
copy  the  documents  for  his  journal,  as  he  frequently 
did. 

The  beautiful  Apollonia  was  in  a  state  bordering  on 
despair,  the  grief  of  the  separation  preyed  upon  her 
mind,  and  she  fell  into  a  state  of  terrible  languor  and 
depression.  Amongst  many  tender  messages  she  makes 
mention  of  the  ring. 

'As  for  the  ring,'  she  wrote,  'most  gracious  and 
beloved  husband,  let  me  tell  you  that  the  one  ordered 
of  John  Stephen  Maze  should  be  a  little  smaller  than 
the  old  one,  and  on  it  must  be  engraved  the  words 
with  which  I  answered  the  question  you  asked  me,  and 
which  is  graved  on  the  ring  I  always  wear  on  my  finger. 


ii  POLITICAL   PRISONERS  71 

I  wish  you  to  wear  the  ring  in  memory  and  for  love  of 
me,  but  as  we  have  no  good  jewellers  here,  I  entreat 
you  to  order  it  yourself.' 

In  the  face  of  such  evidence  it  is  hardly  possible  to 
doubt  that  the  ring  found  at  Osopo  is  the  identical  one 
given  to  Frangipane  by  his  bride,  and  is  the  'relic' 
which  he  lost  in  his  first  engagement  with  the 
Venetians. 

The  correspondence  of  the  loving  couple,  passionate 
and  sad,  continued  during  six  months,  at  the  end  of 
which  time  Apollonia  wrote  to  the  Signory  imploring 
permission  to  share  her  husband's  prison;  but  this  was 
refused  her,  though  her  request  was  supported  by  the 
warmest  recommendations  from  the  Emperor  himself. 
Exasperated,  Frangipane  attempted  to  escape  from 
prison,  but  his  plan  was  discovered,  and  he  was  only  the 
more  closely  watched.  Apollonia  now  requested  the 
favour  of  a  safe-conduct  that  she  might,  at  least,  come 
to  Venice  as  a  traveller  and  visit  her  husband;  this 
also  was  refused,  not  once  only,  but  again  when  she 
wrote  a  second  time. 

There  was  now  but  one  thing  left  for  her  to  do, 
and  she  determined  to  risk  coming  to  Venice  without  a 
safe-conduct.  She  arrived  in  the  depth  of  winter  in 
15 1 6,  with  four  maids  of  honour,  her  chamberlain,  her 
physician,  and  twenty-two  servants.  As  the  Council 
of  Ten  was  ashamed  to  imprison  her  it  placed  her  in 
the  keeping  of  the  patrician  Dandolo,  who  was  the 
general  inspector  of  the  ducal  prisons,  and  he  placed 
at  her  disposal  his  palace  on  the  Grand  Canal,  which 


-i  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  n 

is  now  the  Hotel  Danieli.  She-  took  up  her  quarters 
there  on  the  thirteenth  of  January  with  her  suite,  and 
on  the  twentieth  she  appeared  before  the  Doge  and  his 
counsellors  arrayed  in  a  magnificent  silk  gown  and  a 
black  satin  mantle  lined  with  sable;  a  heavy  gold 
chain  hung  down  upon  her  bosom,  and  a  golden  coif 
was  set  upon  her  hair  in  the  German  fashion;  three 
young  girls  dressed  in  black  cloth  followed  her,  one 
after  the  other,  and  an  old  duenna,  the  physician,  and 
the  chamberlain  brought  up  the  rear. 

The  fair  Countess  addressed  the  Doge  with  feminine 
eloquence  and  tact.  She  began  by  rendering  thanks 
for  the  kindness  and  consideration  shown  to  her  hus- 
band, and  she  requested  permission  to  see  him  twice 
a  week.  She  argued  that  this  permission  was  absolutely 
necessary  to  her,  for  she  said  that  she  was  very  ill,  and 
that  the  treatment  ordered  by  her  doctor  was  of  such  a 
nature  that  she  entirely  declined  to  submit  to  it  except 
in  the  presence  of  her  husband.  The  Doge  and  his 
counsellors  had  never  had  to  face  such  arguments 
before;  they  felt  themselves  absolutely  powerless,  and 
yielded  at  once. 

But  on  the  morrow  old  Dandolo,  the  inspector  of 
prisons,  appeared  before  them  in  a  condition  of  inde- 
scribable dismay  and  excitement.  He  said  that  when 
the  Countess  was  at  last  in  her  husband's  prison,  on  the 
previous  evening,  she  had  made  such  a  scene  in  order  to 
be  allowed  to  stay  all  night  that  he,  Dandolo,  had 
yielded  much  against  his  will  and  had  left  the  couple 
together.     And  now,  in  the  morning,  he  had  found  the 


PALAZZO    RESSONICO 


00' 


II 


POLITICAL   PRISONERS  73 


Countess  still  in  bed,  declaring  that  she  was  dangerously 
ill,  and  demanding  that  her  doctor  should  be  sent  to 
her  without  delay. 

The  Doge  and  his  counsellors  were  in  a  quandary, 
and  Dandolo  was  tearing  his  hair.  Sanudo  informs  us 
that  'there  was  much  noise  in  the  council'  that  morning, 
and  it  is  easy  to  believe  that  he  was  telling  the  truth. 
Almost  half  of  the  grave  magistrates  were  in  favour  of 
leaving  the  Countess  with  her  husband;  the  rest,  with 
a  very  small  majority,  voted  that  she  must  quit  the 
prison.  The  motion  passed,  but  it  was  one  thing  to 
decide  what  she  should  do,  and  quite  another  thing  to 
make  her  do  it.  She  declared  that  since  she  was  inside 
the  tower,  no  power  on  earth  should  get  her  out  of 
it,  and  she  defied  the  Doge,  the  Council  of  Ten,  and 
all  their  works.  Before  such  portentous  obstinacy  the 
government  of  Venice  retired  in  stupefaction,  and  she 
was  left  in  peace. 

But  she  was  human,  after  all,  and  under  prolonged 
imprisonment  her  health  broke  down,  and  she  was 
obliged  to  leave  the  tower  each  year  to  go  to  the 
waters  of  Abano;  but  even  then  she  refused  to  go  out 
until  a  formal  promise  had  been  given  her  that  she 
should  be  allowed  to  return  immediately  after  the  cure. 

No  doubt  it  was  owning  to  her  presence  that 
Frangipane's  confinement  became  by  degrees  less 
rigorous,  and  that  he  was  even  allowed  to  watch  the 
procession  of  Corpus  Domini  from  the  balcony  of  the 
Library. 

Apollonia  had  come  in    January  1516,  and  the  pair 


74  GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  n 

were  not  liberated  till  more  than  two  years  later. 
Germany,  France,  and  Venice  signed  a  truce  of  five 
years;  and  agreed  to  exchange  prisoners  and  give  hostages 
on  the  thirty-first  of  July  1518.  Francis  I.  asked  that 
Germany  should  hand  him  over  Frangipane  as  security 
for  keeping  the  peace,  promising  that  he  should  not 
be  imprisoned,  but  should  be  merely  a  prisoner  of 
the  King  on  parole.  It  was  not  freedom  yet,  but  such 
a  change  was  more  than  welcome,  and  the  negotiations 
with  the  Signory  for  Frangipane's  delivery  were  com- 
pleted on  the  third  of  September.  The  words  he  wrote 
in  the  embrasure  of  the  window  of  his  prison  may  still 
be  read,  says  Dr.  Thode,  who  copied  the  inscription 
which   I   reproduce:  — 

Fo         inchluso  .  qua  .  in  .  torise  .  .  .  fina  .  .  terzo 
zorno  de  .  setembro  .  del  .  M.D.  XVIII  .  io  .  Christoforo  .  Frang- 
-epanibus  Chonte  .  de  .  Veglia  .  Senia  .  et  Modrusa 
Et  io  .  Apollonia  .  Chonsorte  .  de  sopradicto  signor  .  chonte  . 
Vene  .  far  .  chompagnia  .  a  .  quelo  .  adi  .  XX  .  Zenar .  MDXVI  perfina 
sopra  dicto  setembro  .  Chi  mal  .  e  .  ben  .  non  .  sa  .  patir  .  a  .  gra- 
-nde  honor  .  may  .  pol .  venir  .  anche  .  ben  .  ne         .  mal .  de  .  qui .  per  . 
sempre  .  non  .  dura. 

I   translate   literally   as   follows :  — 

I  was  shut  up  here  in  the  Torrisella  till  the  third  day  of 
September  of  15  18,  Christopher  of  the  Frangipane,  Count  of 
Veglia,  Senia,  and  Modrusa.  And  I,  Apollonia,  wife  of  the 
aforesaid  lord  Count,  came  to  keep  him  company  on  the 
twentieth  of  January  15 16  until  the  said  September.  'Who 
cannot  bear  good  and  ill  fate,  Will  never  come  to  honour 
great.'     Also,  Nor  good  nor  evil  lasts  for  ever  here. 


ii  POLITICAL   PRISONERS  75 

Frangipane  seems  to  have  written  this  record  during 
one  of  his  wife's  absences  at  Abano,  being  perfectly 
sure  that  he  was  about  to  be  set  at  liberty.  But  there 
had  been  a  hitch  in  the  negotiations.  Venice  was  not 
ready  to  hand  him  over,  and  meanwhile,  when  Apol- 
lonia  came  back  she  was  refused  admittance.  Dandolo 
again  offered  her  a  home  in  his  palace,  and  did  all  he 
could  to  help  her.  Frangipane,  deprived  of  her  com- 
forting presence,  fell  ill  and  went  almost  mad.  Even 
the  Doge  himself  supported  his  request  to  be  allowed 
to  be  taken  to  a  private  dwelling.  It  was  in  vain;  but 
Apollonia  was  at  last  allowed  to  return  to  her  husband. 
They  left  no  means  untried  to  obtain  the  fulfilment  of 
the  treaty,  and  at  last  Dandolo  became  so  exasperated 
with  the  Council  of  Ten  that  he  resigned  his  post  of 
inspector  of  prisons,  telling  the  councillors  to  their  faces 
that  of  twelve  thousand  prisoners  who  had  been  in  his 
keeping,  first  and  last,  Frangipane  was  the  only  one 
who  had  been  able  to  complain  of  injustice. 

The  Ten  accepted  his  resignation  almost  without 
comment,  and  replaced  him  by  two  nobles.  Then  the 
couple  tried  to  escape,  but  were  discovered  and  again 
separated.  At  last  the  government  consented  to  ask 
the  King  of  France  what  was  to  be  done  with  his 
hostage,  whom  he  seems  to  have  quite  forgotten.  He 
answered  by  requesting  that  Frangipane  should  be 
sent  to  Milan  and  handed  over  to  the  French  governor, 
De  Lautrec. 

The  loving  pair  were  allowed  to  meet  in  the  prison 
again,  two   days   before  the   departure,   but  Apollonia 


76  GLEANINGS    FROM   HISTORY  n 

was  not  permitted  to  follow  her  husband  t<>  Milan,  and  a 
heart-rending  farewell  took  place-  ar  Lizzafusina,  on  the 
frontier.  Having  reached  his  destination,  the  unlucky 
Frangipane  found  himself  in  a  much  worse  prison  than 
the  one  he  had  occupied  so  long  in  Venice.  Again  his 
faithful  wife  succeeded  in  joining  him,  to  share  his 
captivity.  But  her  strength  was  far  spent,  and  she  died 
on  the  fourth  of  September  1519,  in  the  fortress  of 
Milan;  and  soon  afterwards  Frangipane  succeeded  at 
last  in  escaping  by  sawing  through  the  bars  of  his 
window  and  letting  himself  down  by  a  rope. 


T^    >"V0P»ft   oll-    EROE^AeT     DUE      WONDWi 


III 


VENETIAN    DIPLOMACY 


Before  quitting  the  subject  of  Venetian  official  life, 
I  must  devote  a  few  pages  to  the  diplomacy  of  the 
Republic,   which    has    remained    famous    in    history. 

The  kings  of  France  often  confided  diplomatic 
missions  to  the  clergy,  but  the  Venetian  diplomatists 
were  always  laymen,  without  a  single  exception.  The 
Signory  constantly  professed  the  most  devout  faith 
in  Catholic  dogma,  and  as  constantly  exhibited  the 
most  profound  distrust  of  the  popes.  The  Vatican  was, 
indeed,  the  chief  object  of  the  government's  suspicion. 
From   the    fifteenth    century   onward,    any    noble   who 

77 


78  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  m 

entered  holy  orders  lost  his  sear  in  the  Great  Council,  and 
Ce'.cheM,  cortt    I   have  already  explained  that  during  the 

Romano.  discussion  of  matters  relating  to  Rome, 
all  the  'papalisti'  were  ordered  to  withdraw.  When 
Sixtus  V.  was  elected  Pope  in  1585,  and  the  Republic 
sent  four  ambassadors  together  to  congratulate  him,  the 
sixteen  nobles  who  attended  the  mission  were  most 
carefully  chosen  from  among  those  who  never  could  be 
'papalisti.' 

In  answer  to  any  criticism  of  her  methods,  Venice 
was  almost  always  able  to  bring  forward  the  unanswer- 
able argument  of  success ;  but  the  pages  which  record 
her  diplomatic  relations  with  other  powers  are  not  the 
fairest  in  her  history.  Her  dealings  with  her  neighbours 
were  regulated  by  strictly  business  principles;  and 
'business'  is,  I  believe,  the  art  of  becoming  legally 
possessed  of  that  which  is  not  our  own. 

The  marvellous  accuracy  with  which  the  Venetian 
ambassadors  related  to  their  government  the  details  of 
what  they  observed  abroad  is  proverbial,  and  has  been 
a  godsend  to  students  of  history,  such  as  M.  Yriarte,  to 
whom  the  world  is  so  much  indebted  for  his  study  of 
Marcantonio  Barbaro. 

The  post  of  foreign  representative  was  a  most 
honourable  one,  but  there  were  overwhelming  responsi- 
bilities connected  with  it.  In  early  times,  when  diplo- 
matic relations  were  less  close  and  less  continuous,  the 
Republic  had  sent  permanent  embassies  only  to  Rome 
and  Constantinople;  to  other  capitals  special  envoys 
were   only   despatched   when   some   matter  was   to   be 


in  VENETIAN   DIPLOMACY  79 

discussed.  But  in  the  sixteenth  century  Venice  had 
ambassadors  everywhere,  and  each  week  brought  long 
letters  from  all  countries  teeming  with  details,  not  only 
of  political  or  military  events,  but  concerning  social 
festivities,  manners,  customs,  court  intrigues,  and  every 
sort  of  gossip. 

These  letters  were  read  aloud  on  Saturday  to  the 
Senate,  which  thus  assisted  at  a  sort  of  consecutive 
series  of  lectures  on  the  history  of  the  times;  and  as  it 
was  customary  to  choose  the  ambassadors  from  among 
the  senators,  it  was  tolerably  sure  that  when  chosen 
they  would  always  be  well  informed,  up  to  the  latest 
moment. 

The  missions  of  the  Republic  were  limited  to  a 
residence  of  two  years  in  any  one  foreign  capital;  but 
this  short  time  was  amply  sufficient  to  bring  about  the 
financial  ruin  of  the  ambassador  if  he  was  not  very 
rich.  It  was  his  duty  to  display  the  most  boundless 
magnificence  for  the  greater  glory  of  the  Republic,  and 
his  expenses  bore  no  proportion  to  his  salary. 

The  following  instructions,  according  to  M.  Yriarte, 
were  given  to  Marcantonio  Barbaro  on  his  departure 
for  the  court  of  France :  — 

'You  are  to  keep  eleven  horses  for  your  service, 
including  those  of  your  secretary  and  his  servant,  and 
four  mounted  messengers.  You  will  Yriarte,  vie 
receive  for  your  expenses  two  hundred  d"" 1>atncun- 
gold  ducats  monthly  (about  £1800  yearly),  of  which 
you  are  not  required  to  render  an  account.  You  will 
receive  a  thousand  gold  ducats  for  presents,  and  three 


So  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  in 

hundred  for  the  purchase  of  horses,  harness,  and  saddle 
cloths.' 

1  he  Secretary  of  Embassy  was  also  named  by  the 
Senate,  and  though  the  attaches  might  be  chosen  by 
the  ambassador,  his  choice  had  to  be  confirmed  by  the 
government.  He  was  not  allowed  to  take  his  wife 
with  him,  as  her  presence  might  have  distracted  him 
from  business,  and  also  because  it  might  possibly  have 
been  a  little  prejudicial  to  the  keeping  of  secrets;  but 
he  was  allowed  to  take  his  cook.  These  same  instruc- 
tions appear  as  early  as  the  thirteenth  century. 

Modern  diplomatists,  and  especially  Americans,  will 
be  interested  to  know  that  the  post  of  ambassador  was 
so  little  desired  as  to  make  it  necessary  to  impose  a 
heavy  fine  on  anv  noble  who  refused  it  when  he  was 
appointed;  and  it  actually  happened  more  than  once 
that  men  paid  the  fine  rather  than  ruin  themselves 
altogether  in  the  service  of  their  sordid  government. 
Once  having  left  Venice,  however,  no  resignation  was 
allowed,  and  the  ambassador  dared  not  return  unless 
he  was  ordered  to  do  so.  Requests  for  leave  were 
very  rare,  and  were  only  made  under  the  pressure  of 
some  very  exceptional  circumstances.  Such  a  petition 
was  considered  so  serious  a  matter  that  when  one  arrived 
from  abroad  all  persons  related  to  the  ambassador  were 
ordered  to  leave  the  Senate,  lest  their  presence  should 
interfere  with  the  freedom  of  discussion;  but  the 
request  was  never  granted  unless  two  members  of  the 
family  would  swear  that  the  reasons  alleged  in  the 
petition  were  genuine. 


in  YKNETIAN   DIPLOMACY  Si 

Legend  assures  us  that  each  ambassador  received, 
together  with  his  credentials,  a  box  full  of  gold  coin 
and  a  small  bottle  of  deadly  poison.  This  is  childish 
nonsense,  of  course,  so  far  as  the  portable  realities  were 
concerned,  but  ambassadors  were  instructed  to  hesitate 
at  nothing  which  could  accomplish  the  purpose  of  the 
State,  neither  at  spending  large  sums  which  would  be 
placed  at  their  disposal  when  necessary,  nor  at  what  the 
Senate  was  good  enough  to  call  measures  of  exceptional 
severity  —  namely,  murder. 

The  most  important  post  in  Venetian  diplomacy  was 
the  embassy  at  Constantinople,  where  the  chief  of  the 
mission  enjoyed  the  title  of  Bailo,  together  with  the 
chance  of  making  a  fortune  instead  of  losing  one. 
The  Bailo  of  Constantinople  and  the  ambassador  to 
the  Pope  took  precedence  over  all  other  Venetian 
diplomatists,  and  they  were  expected  to  make  an  even 
greater  display,  especially  at  the  pontifical  court.  The 
four  ambassadors  sent  to  congratulate  Sixtus  V.  on 
his  election  had  each  four  noble  attaches,  four  armed 
footmen,  and  five-and-twenty  horses,  and  the  one  of 
the  four  who  was  already  the  resident  in  Rome  was 
indemnified  for  his  expenses  in  order  that  he  might 
appear  as  magnificently  as  his  three  newly  arrived 
colleagues. 

On  their  return  from  a  foreign  mission  the  envoys 
of  the  Republic  were  bound  to  appear  at  the  chancery 
of  the  ducal  palace,  and  to  inscribe  their  names  there 
in  a  special  register;  and  within  a  fortnight  they  were 
required  to  render  an  account  of  what  they  had  seen 


Sz  GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  in 

and  learnt  abroad,  and  of  the  affairs  with  which  they 
had  dealt.  These  accounts,  called  'relaziom,'  were 
brief  recapitulations  of  their  weekly  letters  to  the 
Senate;  the  first  phrases  were  always  written  in  Latin, 
but  the  body  of  the  discourse  might  be  in  Italian, 
or  even  in  dialect.  The  ambassador  presented  him- 
self in  full  dress,  wearing  his  crimson  velvet  mantle 
and  bringing  the  manuscript  of  his  speech,  which  he 
afterwards  handed  to  the  High  Chancellor;  for  as 
early  as  the  fifteenth  century  all  public  speeches  were 
required  to  be  written  out,  in  order  that  they  might 
be  preserved  exactly  as  they  had  been  spoken,  or  rather 
read,  for  it  was  not  even  allowable  to  recite  them  by 
heart.  I  need  hardly  add  that  no  stranger  was  ever 
admitted  to  hear  an  ambassador's  account  of  his 
mission,  and  the  senators  swore  a  special  oath  of 
secrecy  for  the  occasion,  even  with  regard  to  the  most 
insignificant  details. 

Any  one  who  examines  a  number  of  these  documents 
will  soon  see  that  they  all  begin  with  a  portrait  of 
the  sovereign  to  whom  the  envoy  was  accredited,  and 
there  is  often  a  great  deal  about  the  royal  family,  its 
surroundings,  tastes,  and  habits.  Almost  invariably 
also  the  account  ends  with  a  list  of  the  presents  and 
titles  or  decorations  bestowed  upon  the  ambassador  at 
the  close  of  his  mission,  and  all  these  he  was  required 
to  hand  over  intact  to  the  Signory.  Not  uncommonly, 
however,  the  presents  were  returned  to  him;  but  as  no 
foreign  titles  could  be  borne  by  Venetians,  the  recipient 
of  them  was  usually  created  a   Knight  of  the  Golden 


Ill 


VENETIAN   DIPLOMACY 


*3 


Stole,    the    only    heraldic    order    recognised    by    the 
Republic   and   in  the  gift  of  the  government. 

It  would  be  curious  to  examine  into  the  first  causes 


PALAZZO   DARIO 


of  the  relations  between  Venice  and  the  other  European 
states.  It  was  the  exchange  of  raisins  for  wool  which 
obliged     England     and    Venice    to    send    each    other 


S+  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  in 

permanent  diplomatic  missions.  Up  to  that  time 
only  occasional  special  envoys  had  been  necessary. 
The  first  time  that  England  addressed  a  letter  to  the 
Signory  she  employed  as  her  official  agent  a  Neapolitan 
monk,  the  Bishop  of  Bisaccia,  chaplain  to  King  Robert, 
and  this  was  in  1^40.  The  envoy  came  to  say  that 
King  Edward  the  Third  of  England  had  the  honour  to 
inform  the  Doge  Gradenigo  that  he  had  defied  Philippe 
de  Valois  to  say  that  he  was  the  anointed  of  the  Lord. 
The  envoy  further  stated  that  the  two-  rivals  were 
about  to  invoke  the  judgment  of  God,  either  by 
going  unarmed  into  a  den  of  wild  beasts,  who  would 
of  course  respect  the  Lord's  anointed  and  promptly 
Rawdon Brown,  devour  the   pretender,   or  else  by  'touch- 

Arckives.  jng  for  King's  Evil.'  Beginning  in  the 
fifteenth  century  there  is  a  long  list  of  English 
ambassadors  and  ministers  resident  in  Venice.  The 
last  English  diplomatic  representative  in  Venice  was 
Sir  Richard  Worsley,  of  whom  I  shall  have  occasion 
to  speak   hereafter. 

All  the  foreign  diplomatists  in  Venice  were  con- 
stantly on  the  look-out  for  the  arrival  of  the  special 
mounted  messengers  attached  to  each  foreign  embassy. 
These  were  celebrated  throughout  Europe  for  their 
speed  and  discretion.  In  the  fifteenth  century  they 
were  thirty-two  in  number,  and  formed  a  small  guild 
which  was  under  the  protection  of  Saint  Catharine ;  and 
they  were  almost  all  natives  of  Bergamo,  a  city  which 
is  still  singularly  noted  for  the  honesty  and  faithfulness 
of  its  inhabitants,  and  which  even  now  furnishes  Venice 


Ill 


VENETIAN   DIPLOM  \CV 


85 


with  trusty  house-porters  and  other  servants  of  whom 
responsibility   is    required. 


CALLE   BECCHERIA 


In  the  Souvenirs  of  iM.  Armand  Baschet,  I  find  that 
the  courier  who   brought  the   news   of  the  signing  of 


86  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  in 

the  treaty  of  Cambrai  from  Blois  to  Venice  covered  the 
distance  in  eight  days,  the  best  previous  record  to  Paris, 
which  is  about  the  same  distance,  having  been  nine, 
and  the  usual  time  employed  being  fifteen.  The  em- 
ployment of  State  courier  could  be  bought  and  could 
be  left  by  will. 

Each  ambassador  of  the  Republic  seemed  to  possess 
a  part  of  the  marvellously  universal  vision  that  belonged 
to  the  Council  of  Ten.  Mr.  Rawdon  Brown  made 
a  special  study  of  the  weekly  letters  of  the  Venetian 
ambassadors  in  England,  and  found,  for  instance,  that 
one  of  the  Republic's  representatives  succeeded  in 
regularly  copying  the  letters  which  Queen  Elizabeth 
wrote  to  her  lovers,  which  were  therefore  read  aloud 
to  the  Senate  with  the  greatest  regularity,  together  with 
many  other  curious   details  of  English  court  life. 

I  shall  give  two  specimens,  translated  from  the 
weekly  letters  in  the  Alberi  collection.  In  153 1  the 
patrician  Ludovico  Falier  came  to  render  an  account  of 
his  mission  to  the  Court  of  Henry  VIII.  He  expresses 
himself  as  follows,  concerning  that  King  and  the 
English:  — 

In  order  that  my  discourse  may  be  better  understood  I  shall 
divide  it  into  two  chief  parts,  of  which  the  one  concerns  my 
journey,  and  the  other  the  most  puissant  King  Henry  VIII., 
and  the  manners  and  customs  of  his  country  from  the  year 
1528  to  1 53 1 .  .  .  .  On  the  tenth  of  December  I  reached 
Calais  [he  had  left  Venice  in  the  middle  of  October,  but  had 
travelled  by  short  stages  with  a  numerous  suite]  ;  it  is  a  citv 
of  the  French  coast  which  belongs  to  the  most  serene  King  of 


in  VENETIAN  DIPLOMACY  87 

England,  as  I  shall  have  occasion  to  repeat  hereafter.  There 
I  went  on  board  a  vessel  to  cross  the  ocean,  which  after 
behaving  furiously  during  the  passage  at  last  threw  me  upon 
the  English  shore.  I  therefore  arrived  at  Dover  much  more 
tired  by  these  few  hours  of  navigation  than  by  a  journey  of 
ninety  days  on  dry  land.  Having  rested  a  little  at  Dover  I  got 
on  horseback  to  go  to  London.  At  St.  George's  I  met  my 
most  illustrious  predecessor  Venier  with  several  personages  of 
the  Court,  including  the  most  reverend  the  Cardinal  (Thomas 
Wolsey),  and  we  all  entered  the  city  together,  and  they 
accompanied  me  to  my  house.  I  was  ordered  almost  at  once 
to  go  to  the  Cardinal,  in  order  to  kiss  his  hand,  for  this  cere- 
mony always  preceded  that  of  an  audience  with  the  King; 
such  is  the  power  of  this  prince  [of  the  Church].  On  leav- 
ing his  apartment  I  was  conducted  to  his  most  serene  Majesty, 
with  whom  I  then  had  the  interview  which  I  described  in 
detail  in  my  letter  to  your  Signory  and  to  this  glorious  Senate. 

The  ambassador  goes  on  to  speak  in  the  past  tense 
of  Cardinal  Wolsey,  who  had  fallen  into  disgrace  in  the 
interval.  He  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  Queen,  who  was 
then    Catharine   of  Aragon. 

My  lady  the  Queen  is  small  of  stature,  and  plump,  and  has 
an  honest  face  ;  she  is  good  and  just,  aftable  and  pious.  She 
speaks  fluently  Spanish,  Elemish,  French,  and  English.  Her 
subjects  love  her  more  than  they  ever  loved  anv  Queen  ;  she 
is  five  and  forty  years  old,  and  she  has  already  lived  thirty-five 
years  in  England. 

The  ambassador  speaks   of  the   King  next. 

God  has  united  in  King  Henrv  VIII.  beauty  of  soul  with 
beauty  of  body,  so  that  everv  one  is  astonished  by  such  won- 
ders ...  he  has  the  face  of  an  angel,  for  it  would  not  be 
enough  to  say  that  he  is  handsome ;   he  resembles  Caesar,  his 


88  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  in 

look  is  calm,  and  contrary  to  English  fashion,  he  wears  his 
beard  ;  who  would  not  admire  so  much  beauty  accompanied 
with  so  much  strength  and  grace  ?  He  rides  very  well,  jousts 
and  handles  a  lance  with  great  skill  ;  he  is  a  very  good  shot  and 
an  excellent  tennis  player.  He  has  always  cultivated  the  ex- 
traordinary qualities  with  which  nature  has  adorned  him  from 
his  birth,  for  he  thinks  that  nothing  is  more  unnatural  than  a 
sovereign  who  cannot  dominate  his  people  by  his  moral  and 
physical  qualities. 

And  here  the  ambassador  seems  to  have  thought 
that  he  had  gone  rather  far,  for  he  finds  something  to 
say  about  Henry's  less  admirable  characteristics. 

Unhappily  this  prince,  so  intelligent  and  reasonable,  is  given 
up  to  idleness,  has  allowed  himself  to  be  led  away  by  his  pas- 
sions, and  has  left  the  government  of  the  State  in  the  hands 
of  a  few  favourites,  the  most  powerful  of  whom  was  the 
Cardinal,  until  he  fell  into  total  disgrace.  Since  then,  from 
having  been  generous,  he  has  become  miserly,  and  whereas 
formerly  all  those  who  treated  of  affairs  with  him  went  away 
satisfied  and  covered  with  gifts,  he  now  allows  all  to  leave  the 
Court  with  discontent.  He  makes  a  show  of  great  piety, 
hears  two  low  masses  every  day,  and  high  mass  also,  on  feast 
days.  He  gives  to  the  poor,  to  orphans,  widows,  young  girls, 
and  infirm  persons,  and  for  these  charities  he  gives  his  almoner 
ten  thousand  ducats  yearly.  He  is  beloved  by  all.  He  is 
forty  years  of  age  and  has  reigned  twenty-two. 

Falier  speaks  next  of  the  climate  of  Great  Britain 
and  the  products  of  the  country,  and  gives  a  long 
description  of  a  brewery.  He  briefly  but  sufficiently 
describes  the  Universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
and  gives  some  account  of  the  British  Constitution.      He 


Ill 


VENETIAN   DIPLOMACY 


89 


gives  also  a  statement  of  the  King's  sources  of  income 
with  their  amount,  and  the  accuracy  of  the  figures 
suggests  that  he  must  have  got  access' to  papers  not 
intended  for  his  perusal. 

His   Majesty  may  count  upon  over  five  hundred  thousand 
ducats  [i^375>OOo]  a  year,  divided  as  follows:  — 


From  the  Crown  (Lands) 

Customs  . 

Vacant  Benefices 

Privy  Seal 

Rebels  (Confiscations,  etc.) 

Lands  on  the  Continent 

Fines  for  Crimes 

Royal  Guards  . 

Tota 


Ducats. 

190,000 

150,000 

40,000 

10,000 

50,000 

10,000 

25,000 

50,000 

525,000 


I  cannot  tell  exactly  what  he  gets  from  taxes,  but  from 
information  which  I  have  endeavoured  to  obtain  from  grave 
and  experienced  persons,  His  Majesty  exacts  from  his  subjects 
about  a  million  of  ducats  ;  for  the  six  millions  of  ducats  which 
he  had  inherited  from  his  father  were  all  spent  in  the  wars  with 
France,  Flanders,  and  Scotland.  His  Majestv  usuallv  spends 
425,000  ducats  for  his  Court,  which  consists  of  five  hundred 
men  ;  namelv,  twenty-six  chamberlains,  of  whom  one  is  Treas- 
urer of  the  Chamber  [keeper  of  the  privy  purse?],  one  is  a 
Majorduomo  called  a  c  Steward,'  his  assistant,  who  carries  a 
little  white  stick  as  a  sign  of  his  dignity;  the  Treasurer  Gen- 
eral, who  pavs  all  accounts;  the  accountant  who  distributes 
[the  payments]  ;  the  '  cofFerers  '  in  charge  of  the  said  accounts ; 
the  Master  of  the  Horse  who  has  the  management  of  the  royal 
stables.     There  are  three  hundred  horses,  between  Arabs,  Turk- 


9° 


GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY 


in 


ish  horses  and  racers,  hackneys  and  others.  His  Majesty  has 
also  eight  chaplains,  of  whom  one  distributes  his  charities,  and 
there  are  main  persons  lor  his  service  of  whom  I  do  not  speak 
in  detail  lest  I  should  fatigue  Your  Serenity.  His  Majesty  has 
always  in  his  pay  three  hundred  halberdiers  who  are  on  guard 
by  tens  at  a  time  for  the  King's  person,  and  pass  the  night  in 
the  private  antechamber. 

His  Majesty  spends  as  follows:  — 


For  the  Maintenance  of  his  Court 
Presents  ..... 
Horses  ..... 
Parks,  and  Packs  of  Hounds 
Soldiers  who  guard  the  Fortresses 
His  Majesty's  Chamber  (Privy  Purse) 
Buildings  .... 

Charities  .... 

Embassies  and  King's  Messengers 
Expenses  of  the  Queen  (Catharine  of  Aragon),  and 
the  Princess  (Mary)     . 

Total 


Ducats. 

• 

100,000 

. 

120,000 

. 

20,000 

. 

50,000 

. 

30,000 

. 

30,000 

. 

10,000 

. 

10,000 

. 

40,000 

30,000 
440,000 


In  case  of  war  his  Majesty  could  arm  four  thousand  light 
horse  and  sixty  thousand  infantry.  The  latter  would  fight  in 
the  old-fashioned  way,  with  bow,  sword,  shield,  helmet,  and 
with  pikes  of  one  or  two  points  which  are  excellent  against 
charges  of  cavalry.  They  are  now  beginning  to  use  guns  and 
artillery.  The  English  do  not  fear  death.  As  soon  as  the 
battle  commences,  they  provoke  the  enemy  and  charge  furi- 
ously ;  in  very  quick  engagements  they  are  generally  victorious, 
but  they  often  yield  if  the  war  drags  on.  They  have  not  the 
slightest  fear  of  Frenchmen,  but  they  are  much  afraid  of  the 
Scotch. 


hi  VENETIAN  DIPLOMACY  91 

During  forty  days  they  are  obliged  to  scve  in  the  army 
without  receiving  pay ;  after  that  time  they  receive  three 
crowns  and  a  half  for  a  period  of  service  determined  before- 
hand.    The  fleet  consists  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  vessels. 

It  now  only  remains  for  me  to  tell  you  who  are  the  friends 
of  the  King,  and  what  consequences  his  divorce  might  have, 
and  I  shall  then  add  a  few  words  on  the  most  Reverend  the 
Cardinal  York. 

Since  the  affair  of  the  divorce  has  come  up  [Falier  is  writing 
in  1 53 1,  and  Henry  VIII.  married  Anne  Boleyn  the  next  year] 
the  Pope  [Clement  VII.]  is  not  in  his  Majesty's  good  graces. 
If  the  Holy  Father  will  not  grant  the  King  permission  to  divorce, 
the  result  will  be  a  very  great  advantage  for  the  English  crown, 
and  a  great  danger  to  the  Roman  Church,  for  the  King  will 
detach  himself  from  the  latter,  and  will  seize  all  the  revenues 
of  the  ecclesiastical  benefices;  this  will  yield  the  Crown  more 
than  six  million  ducats  [,£4,500,000]. 

Falier  was  not  mistaken,  unless,  perhaps,  in  his 
figures.  He  proceeds  to  speak  of  the  relations  between 
England  and  all  the  other  European  states,  after  which 
he  returns  to  the  question  of  the  divorce,  expressing  him- 
self in  a  very  singular  way  for  a  Catholic.  It  must  be 
remembered,  however,  that  he  was  a  Venetian,  and 
therefore  a  man  of  business  first,  and  a  baptized  Chris- 
tian afterward. 

The  Englishman  [Henrv  VIII.]  must  necessarily  divorce, 
for  he  wishes  to  have  a  legitimate  son,  and  he  has  lost  all  hope 
of  one  being  born  to  him  by  the  Lady  Catharine  [of  Aragon] . 
He  will  therefore  marry  his  favourite  [Anne  Boleyn]  the 
daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Vuilcer  (sic)  [Wiltshire  —  note  the 
Venetian's  phonetic  spelling  !]  as  soon  as  possible.  He  will 
have  trouble,  for  the  faction  that  is  for  the  Queen  will  rise. 


92  GLEANINGS   FROM  HISTORY  m 

It  is  quite  clear  that  Venetian  diplomatists  did  not 
indulge  themselves  in  sentiment,  and  the  information 
they  presented  to  the  Senate  was  as  brutally  frank  and 
coldly  precise  as  a  medical  diagnosis.  They  sought  for 
facts  and  did  not  philosophise  about  them.  Here  is 
Falier's  opinion  of  Cardinal  Wolsey :  — 

The  King  and  the  kingdom  were  in  his  hands,  and  he  dis- 
posed of  everything  as  the  King  himself  might  have  done,  or 
the  Pope.  All  the  princes  were  obliged  to  bow  down  to  him. 
He  received  one  hundred  and  fittv  thousand  ducats  yearly  over 
and  above  the  gifts  which  he  had  from  the  English  and  the 
foreign  princes.  He  counted  much  on  France,  with  which 
kingdom  he  kept  up  extremely  affectionate  relations.  His 
court  was  magnificent,  more  magnificent  than  the  King's. 
He  spent  all  his  income,  he  was  very  proud,  and  he  wished  to 
be  adored  like  a  god  rather  than  respected  as  a  prince. 

In  connection  with  the  great  Cardinal,  I  shall  trans- 
late a  passage  of  the  letter  in  which  Falier  had  informed 
the  Senate  of  his  disgrace.  The  fragment  has  some 
value  also,  from  the  light  it  throws  on  the  comparative 
values  of  coins  at  that  time.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  the  value  of  the  gold  ducat  never  changed  to  the  last, 
while  that  of  all  other  European  coins  varied  greatly. 

The  King  of  England  has  had  the  Cardinal  put  in  prison, 
has  deprived  him  of  the  government,  and  has  confiscated  all  his 
property.  His  fortune  is  valued  at  forty  thousand  pounds 
English,  equal  to  twenty  thousand  of  our  grossi  [the  silver 
mark],  or  two  hundred  thousand  [silver]  ducats  ;  in  these  forty 
thousand  pounds  must  be  included  thirty  thousand  pounds 
English  in  cash,  that  is,  fifteen  thousand  of  ours  or  one  hun- 


in  VENETIAN   DIPLOMACY  93 

dred  and  fifty  thousand  [silver]  ducats.  His  real  estate  has 
also  been  confiscated,  consisting  of  his  Archbishopric,  which 
brought  him  a  very  large  sum. 

At  the  risk  of  wearying  my  readers  I  give  a  short 
extract  from  the  report  of  another  ambassador  to 
England,  Jacopo  Soranzo,  which  was  read  before  the 
Senate  on  the  ninth  of  August  1554  (Queen  Mary 
then  reigning).  The  Venetian  expresses  his  surprise 
at  the  way  in  which  trials  by  jury  were  conducted  in 
England. 

Crimes  are  tried  before  twelve  judges  who  may  not  leave 
the  court,  nor  eat,  nor  drink,  until  they, all  agree,  without  one 
exception,  on  the  sentence  to  be  passed.  .  .  .  When  sentence 
has  been  passed,  the  judges  execute  it  immediately,  but  without 
ever  resorting  to  the  mutilation  of  a  member  or  exile.  If  the 
accused  is  innocent,  he  is  acquitted  ;  if  he  is  guilty,  he  is  con- 
demned to  death. 

I  need  not  lav  stress  on  the  defective  form  of  such  trials  ; 
your  Lordships  see  for  yourselves  how  reprehensible  such  a 
mode  of  procedure  is,  for  it  often  happens  that  eleven  persons 
who  wish  to  acquit  the  accused  decide  to  condemn  him  to 
death  in  order  to  be  of  the  opinion  of  the  twelfth,  who  is 
determined  to  bear  starvation  till  this  verdict  is  given. 

Before  closing  this  chapter  it  is  worth  while  to  note 
that  if  the  Venetian  ambassadors  abroad  succeeded  in 
knowing  almost  everything  that  was  happening,  the 
government  took  good  care  that  foreign  A%  Bascket, 
representatives  residing  in  Venice  should  Archives. 
not  follow  their  example.  They  were  never  told  any- 
thing in   the  way  of  news,   und   though   honours   and 


94  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  in 

privileges  were  heaped  upon  them,  they  were  kept  at 
arm's  length.  As  far  hack  as  the  fourteenth  century 
there  was  a  law  forbidding  all  patricians  to  have  any 
acquaintance  or  social  intercourse  with  any  foreign 
representative  except  under  the  most  exceptional 
circumstances,  and  M.  Baschet  has  found  material 
in  the  Archives  sufficient  to  prove  that  the  foreign 
ambassadors  lived  in  something  very  like  the  seclusion 
of  exile,  and  were  altogether  banished  from  all  inter- 
course with  the  upper  classes.  The  same  writer  adds 
that  the  diplomatists  resented  this  rude  exclusion,  and 
that  the  practice  of  it  made  the  Republic  not  a  few 
enemies. 

To  such  a  criticism  Venice  would  have  answered,  as 
usual,  by  the  argument  of  success  on  the  whole  during 
many  centuries.  Those  who  care  to  examine  the  point 
more  closely  may  read  M.  Baschet's  interesting  work 
on   the   Secret   Chancery. 


I'ONTE    DEL   CKlsTO 


IV 


THE  ARSENAL,   THE   GLASS-WORKS,   AND 
THE  LACE-MAKERS 


The  old  Arsenal  is  such  a  museum  of  shadows  nowa- 
days that  it  is  hard  to  realise  what  it  once  meant  to 
the  Venetians.  Six  hundred  years  ago,  the  sight  of  it 
inspired  one  of  Dante's  most  vivid  descriptions  of 
activity,  and  I  have  sometimes  wondered  whether  in  his 
day  the  three  dwelling-houses  of  the  Provveditors  were 
already  nick-named  Heaven,  Purgatory,  and  Hell,  as 
they  were  always  called  at  a   later  date. 

95 


96  GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  iv 

The  Arsenal  was  founded  in  the  twelfth  century,  and 
from  the-  very  Hist  was  one  of  the  institutions  most 
jealously  watched  over  by  the  government.  In  the 
sixteenth  century  it  had  grown  to  he  a  vast  enclosure 
of  docks  and  hasins,  protected  by  a  crenellated  wall,  and 
having  but  one  entrance,  which  was  guarded  by  senti- 
nels. In  the  interior,  the  houses  of  the  Provveditors 
had  grown  to  be  three  great  palaces,  built  round  a 
courtyard,  each  officer  occupying  one  of  them  during 
the  thirty-two  months  of  his  term  of  office. 

The  Provveditors  were  nobles,  of  course,  but  they 
must  necessarily  have  been  men  who  thoroughly  under- 
stood nautical  matters,  for  it  was  their  duty  to  oversee 
all  work  done  in  the  place,  to  the  minutest  details,  and 
they  had  absolute  control  of  all  the  vast  stores  accumu- 
lated for  building  and  fitting  the  fleet  of  the  Republic. 
Everv  manufactured  article  was  stamped  with  the  arms 
of  the  Republic  as  soon  as  it  was  made  or  purchased, 
and  not  a  nail,  not  a  fathom  of  rope,  not  a  yard  of  canvas 
could  be  brought  out  of  the  storehouses  without  the 
consent  of  one  of  the  Provveditors.  If  anything  was 
found  outside  the  w-alls  of  the  Arsenal  with  the  public 
mark  on  it,  the  object  was  considered  by  law  to  be 
stolen,  an  inquiry  was  made,  and  if  the  culprit  who  had 
committed  the  misdemeanour  could  be  caught,  he  was 
condemned    to    the    galleys. 

In  order  to  enforce  the  rigid  regulations  the  govern- 
ment not  only  required  all  three  Provveditors  to  inhabit 
constantly  the  palaces  assigned  to  them,  but  insisted  that 
one  of  them  should  remain  day  and  night  within  the 


STEAMERS   COMING    IN 


iv  THE  ARSENAL  97 

boundaries  of  the  yard,  during  a  fortnight,  without 
going  out  at  all.  This  service  was  taken  in  turn,  and 
the  official  who  was  on  duty  was  called  the  'Patron  di 
Guardia.'  Into  his  hands  all  the  keys  were  given  every 
evening-  when  work  was  over. 

The  artisans  of  the  government  ship-yard  were  the 
finest  set  of  men  in  Venice,  and  their  traditions  of 
workmanship  and  art  were  handed  dow7n  in  their 
families  from  father  to  son  for  generations,  as  certain 
occupations  still  are  in  Italy.  I  know  of  a  man-servant, 
for  instance,  whose  direct  ancestors  have  served  those 
of  the  family  in  which  he  is  still  a  servant  for  more 
than  two  hundred  years  without  a  break.  In  the 
Venetian  Arsenal,  it  sometimes  happened  that  an  old 
man  was  foreman  of  a  department  in  which  his  son  was 
a  master  smith  or  carpenter,  and  his  grandson  an 
apprentice. 

There  was  something  military  in  the  organisation, 
which  bound  the  artisans  very  close  together,  for  they 
trained  themselves  in  fencing  and  gymnastics,  and  also 
in  everything  connected  with  extinguishing  fires  and 
saving  wrecks  or  shipwrecked  crews,  for  in  any  case  of 
public  danger  it  was  always  the  'Arsenalotti'  who  were 
called  in.  They  were  sober  and  courageous  and  exces- 
sively proud  of  their  trade,  and  the  government  could 
ahvays  count  on  them.  Twice,  towards  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  the  ducal  palace  took  fire,  and  would 
have  burnt  down  but  for  the  prodigious  energy  of  the 
workmen  from  the  government  docks.  On  the  first 
occasion    they    proudly    refused    the    present    of    five 


VOL.   II.  —  H 


98  GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  iv 

hundred  ducats  which  the  Doge  offered  them,  but 
gratefully  accepted  an  invitation  to  dine  with  him  in  a 
body;  and  as  they  numbered  over  fifteen  thousand  the 
Doge  did  not  save  money  by  the  arrangement.  Three 
years  later,  all  their  efforts  could  not  hinder  the  hall  of 
the  Great  Council  from  burning,  and  priceless  works  of 
art  by  such  men  as  the  two  Bellini,  Titian,  Tintoretto, 
and  Pordenone  were  destroyed  in  a  few  moments.  But 
the  Arsenalotti  saved  the  rest  of  the  building,  and 
again   refused   any   recompense  for  their  services. 

When  Henry  III.  of  France  came  to  Venice,  the 
Arsenal  employed  about  sixteen  thousand  men,  and  could 
count  on  a  budget  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-four 
thousand  gold  ducats,  of  which  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
four  went  to  pay  the  wages  of  the  workmen,  and  the  rest 
was  expended  for  materials.  Those  were  large  sums 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  but  Venice  looked  upon  the 
Arsenal  as  the  mainspring  of  her  power,  and  spared 
nothing  to  keep  it  in  a  state  as  near  perfection  as 
possible.  In  the  long  struggle  with  Genoa,  the  enemy 
used  every  art  to  bring  about  its  destruction,  but  always 
in  vain.  The  men  who  guarded  the  docks  were 
absolutely  incorruptible.  In  the  sixteenth  century  it 
seemed  as  if  the  pure  blood  of  the  old  Venetians  ran 
only  in  their  veins,  and  as  if  they  alone  still  upheld  the 
noble  traditions  of  loyalty  and  simplicity  which  the 
founders  of  the  Republic  had  handed  down  from  braver 
days. 

Next  to  the  construction  of  her  war-ships  and 
merchant  fleets,  one  of  the  most  important  matters  to 


IV 


GLASS-WORKS 


99 


the  commerce  of  Venice  was  the  manufacture  of  glass, 
which  brought  enormous   profits  to  the  State  and  to 


S.    MICHEI.E 


individuals,  as  is  usually  the  case  when  a  valuable  pro- 
duct is  made  out  of  cheap  materials  by  processes  which 
are  secret,  and  therefore  have  the  effect  of  a  monopoly. 


100 


GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 


IV 


As  early  as  the  fourteenth  century  the  government 
had  understood  the  immense  importance  of  the  art, 
and  the  glass-blowers  of  Murano  were  protected  and 
favoured  in  a  most  especial  way.  As  in  one  part  of 
France,  a  sort  of  nobility  was  inherent  in  the  occupation, 
and  an  early  law  sanctioned  the  marriage  of  a  master 


i 


^ 


VENICE    FKOM    Ml'KANO 


glass-blower's   daughter  with   a   patrician   by   allowing 
their  children  to  be  entered  in  the  Golden  Book. 

The  glass-works  were  all  established  in  the  island 
of  Murano,  as  their  presence  in  the  city  would  have 
caused  constant  danger  of  fire  at  a  time  when  many 
of  the  houses  were  still  built  of  wood,  and  the  whole 
manufacture  was  subject  to  the  direct  supervision  of 
the  Council  of  Ten,  under  whose  supreme  authority 
Murano  governed  itself  as  a  separate  city,  and  almost  as  a 


IV 


GLASS-WORKS 


101 


separate  little  republic.     Not  only  were  the  glass-blowers 
organised  in  a  number  of  guilds  according  to  the  special 


branches  of  the  profession,  such  as  bead-making,  bottle- 
blowing,  the  making  of  window-panes  and  of  stained 
glass,  each  guild  having  its  own  'mariegola'  or  charter; 


io2  GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  iv 

but  over  these  the  Muranese  had  their  own  Great 
Council  and  Golden  Book,  in  which  the  names  of  one 
hundred  and  seventy-three  families  were  inscribed,  and 
their  own  Small  Council,  or  Senate.  The  Ten  gave 
Murano  a  '  Podesta,'  but  he  had  not  the  power  which 
similar  officers  exercised  in  the  other  cities  and  islands 
of  the  Dogato,  and  it  is  amusing  to  see  that  the  people 
of  Murano  treated  him  very  much  as  the  Venetians 
themselves  treated  their  Doge.  He  was  required  to 
be  of  noble  blood;  he  was  obliged  by  law  to  spend 
three  days  out  of  four  in  Murano;  he  was  forbidden 
to  go  to  Venice  when  important  functions  were  going 
on ;  he  could  not  interfere  in  any  affair  without  the 
permission  of  both  the  Councils  of  Murano,  and  al- 
together he  was  much  the  same  sort  of  figure-head 
as  the  Doge  himself.  On  the  other  hand,  Murano 
supported  a  sort  of  consul  in  Venice  with  the  title  of 
Nuncio,  whose  business  it  was  to  defend  the  interests 
of  the  island  before  the  Venetian  government. 

Neither  the  Missier  Grande,  the  chief  of  the  Venetian 
police,  nor  the  'sbirri,'  were  allowed  to  exercise  their 
functions  on  the  island.  Offenders  were  arrested  and 
dealt  with  by  the  officers  of  the  Murano  government, 
and  were  handed  over  to  the  Venetian  supreme  govern- 
ment only  in  extreme  cases,  most  trials  taking  place 
on   the   island. 

The  heraldic  arms  of  Murano  displayed  on  an  azure 
field  a  cock  with  red  legs,  wearing  a  crown  of  silver. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  the  population  was  about 
thirty  thousand  souls,  and  the  little  city"  had  a  great 


IV 


GLASS-WORKS 


I03 


reputation  for  the  beauty  of  its  churches  and  especially 
of  its  gardens,  in  which  quantities  of  exotic  plants  and 
flowers  wyere  cultivated. 

The  two  most  powerful  families  amongst  the  glass- 
blowers  were  those  of  Beroviero  and  Ballarin.  I  have 
told  at  length  in  the  form  of  a  romance  the  true  story 


Ml'KANO,    LOOKING  TOWARDS   VENICE 


of  Zorzi  Ballarin  and  Marietta  Beroviero,  availing 
myself  only  of  the  romancer's  right  to  be  the  apologist 
of  his  hero.  The  facts  remain.  Angelo  Beroviero,  a 
pupil  of  Paolo  Godi,  the  famous  mediaeval  chemist, 
worked  much  alone  in  his  laboratory,  noting  the  results 
of  his  experiments  in  a  diary  which  became  extremely 
valuable.     By   some   means  this   diary  came   into  the 


104 


GLEANINGS    FROM    HISTORY 


IV 


hands  of  Zorzi  Ballarin,  so-called  by  his  comrades  on 
account  ot  his  lameness.  He  loved  Marietta,  and  she 
loved  him,  but  he  was  poor,  and  moreover,  as  far  as 
I  have  been  able  to  ascertain,  he  was  of  foreign  birth, 
and  could  therefore  not  become  a  master  glass-blower. 
When  he  found  himself  in  possession  of  the  precious 


secrets,  he  used  his  power  to  extort  Beroviero's  consent, 
he  married  Marietta,  obtained  the  full  privileges  of  a 
master,  lived  a  highly  honourable  life,  and  became  the 
ancestor  of  a  distinguished  family,  one  of  whom  was  a 
Venetian  ambassador,  as  may  be  read  in  the  inscription 
on  his  tomb  in  Murano.  Beroviero's  house,  with  the 
sign  of  the  Angel,  is  still  standing  in  Murano,  and  I 
think  the  ancient  glass-works  nearly  opposite  were 
probably  his.     As  for  Zorzi  Ballarin,  I  daresay  that  the 


IV 


GLASS-WORKS 


105 


process  by  which  he  really  got  possession  of  the  diary 
was  not  strictly  legal,  but  love  has  excused  worse  mis- 
deeds than  that,  and  Beroviero  does  not  seem  to  have 
suffered  at  all  in  the  end.  If  there  had  been  any 
foundation  for  the  spiteful  story  some  chroniclers  tell, 


THE    HOUSE    OF    BEROVIERO,    MURANO 


a  man  of  Beroviero's  power  and  wealth  could  have 
had  Zorzi  imprisoned,  tortured,  and  exiled  without  the 
slightest  difficulty. 

Venice  was  almost  as  famous  for  her  lace  as  for  her 
glass.  On  the  admittedly  doubtful  authority  of  Daru 
and  Laugier,  Smedley  gives  an  anecdote  of  the  Emperor 
Frederick  III.  for  what  it  is  worth.  It  at  least  illustrates 
the  fact  that   all   foreigners   did   not  esteem  Venetian 


106  GLEANINGS    FROM    HISTORY  iv 

glass  as  highly  as  the  \  enetians  themselves.  When 
Frederick  visited  the-  city  <>n  his  way  to  Rome,  he 
was  most  magnificently  entertained,  and  amongst  other 
presents  offered  to  him  was  a  very  beautiful  service  of 
Murano  glass.  The  Emperor  was  not  pleased  with 
the  gift,  which,  to  his  barbarous  ignorance,  seemed  of 
no  value;  he  ordered  his  dwarf  jester  to  seem  -to 
stumble  against  the  table  on  which  the  matchless  glass 
was  set  out,  and  it  was  all  thrown  to  the  ground  and 
smashed  to  atoms.  'If  these  things  had  been  of  gold 
or  silver,  they  could  not  have  been  broken  so  easily,' 
said  the  imperial  boor. 

In  contrast  with  this  possibly  true  story  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  I  find  that  the  lace  collar  wTorn  by 
Louis  XIV.  at  his  coronation  was  made  in  Venice,  and 
was  valued  at  an  enormous  sum.  He  afterwards  bribed 
Murano  glass-blowers  to  settle  in   France. 

In  those  times,  more  or  less  as  now,  women  made 
lace  at  home,  and  brought  the  results  of  their  long  and 
patient  labour  to  the  dealers,  who  bought  and  sold  it  at 
a  fabulous  profit.  A  few  specimens  of  the  finest  lace 
of  the  sixteenth  century  are  still  in  existence,  and  are 
worn  on  great  occasions  by  Italian  ladies  whose  ances- 
tresses  wore  them  more  than  three  hundred  years  ago; 
but  the  art  of  making  such  lace  is  extinct.  Glance 
only,  for  instance,  at  a  picture  by  Carpaccio,  in  the 
Museo  Civico  of  Venice,  representing  two  patrician 
ladies  of  the  fifteenth  centurv,  one  of  whom  wears  white 
lace  on  her  gown.  It  is  of  the  kind  known  as  'point 
coupe'  or  cut  point,  and  is  the  same  which  Francesco 


iv  LACE  107 

Vinciolo  taught  the  French  a  hundred  years  later  when 
it  was  no  longer  thought  fine  enough,  in  Venice,  for 
ornamenting  anything  but  sheets  and  pillow-cases.  It 
is  inimitable  now.  Or  look  at  the  exquisite  lace  of 
network  stitch  with  which  Gentile  Bellini  loved  to 
adorn  the  women  he  portrayed.  Yet  in  the  sixteenth 
century  still  further  progress  had  been  made,  and  the 
'air  point'  was  created,  which  surpassed  in  fineness  any- 
thing imagined  before  then,  and  for  which  fabulous 
prices  were  paid.  The  collar  of  Louis  XIV.  was  of 
this  point,  and  it  is  said  that  as  no  thread  could  be 
spun  fine  enough  for  it,  white  human  hair  was  used. 
There  is  also  a  story  to  the  effect  that  the  Emperor 
Joseph  II.,  who  ascended  the  throne  in  1765,  ordered 
a  set  of  air  point  worth  the  improbable,  though  not  very 
great  price  of  J7,JJJ  francs.  As  neither  Austrians  nor 
Venetians  used  the  franc,  the  story  is  most  likely  of 
French  origin. 

Another  lace  greatly  valued  in  Venice  was  the  'rose 
point,'  which  is  probably  the  best  known  of  the  ancient 
laces.  It  was  preferred,  for  collars,  both  by  high  officials 
and  great  ladies,  and  the  Dogesses  often  used  it  for 
their  veils.  The  Doge  Francesco  Morosini  possessed 
some  wonderful  specimens  of  it,  which  I  am  told  are 
still   in   the  possession   of  his   descendants. 

One  more  stitch  was  invented  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  which  oddly  enough  obtained  the  generic 
name  of  'Venetian  point.'  There  is  a  pretty  story 
about  it.  A  sailor,  says  the  legend,  came  home  from 
a  long  voyage  and  brought  his  sweetheart  a  kind  of 


io8         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  iv 

seaweed  known  to  botanists  by  the  name  of  Halimedia 
Opuntta,  of  which  the  little  branches  were  so  Hue  that 
the  people  called  the  plant  'Siren's  hair.'  The  man 
sailed  again  on  another  voyage,  and  the  girl,  full  of 
loving  and  anxious  thoughts  for  him,  occupied  herself 
by  copying  the  dried  plant  with  her  needle,  and  in  so 
doing    created    the    Venetian    point. 

The  minister  Colbert  introduced  it  into  France  a 
century  later,  under  Louis  XIV.,  and  gave  it  his  own 
name ;  and  the  King  and  the  Republic  quietly  quarrelled 
about  this  French  infringement  of  a  Venetian  monopoly. 
In  the  end,  the  Inquisitors  of  State  issued  a  decree  which 
was  intended  to  recall  errant  and  erring  Venetian  lace- 
workers  and  glass-blowers  to  the  security  of  their 
homes :  — - 

'All  workmen  or  artisans  who  carry  on  their  trade 
in  foreign  countries  shall  be  ordered  to  come  back; 
should  they  disobey,  the  members  of  their  families 
shall  be  imprisoned,  and  if  they  then  return,  they  shall 
be  freely  pardoned  and  again  employed  in  Venice.  But 
if  any  of  them  persist  in  living  abroad,  messengers 
shall  be  sent  to  kill  them,  and  when  they  are  dead  their 
relations    shall    be    let   out   of  prison.' 

The  glass-blowers  who  were  to  be  murdered  were 
men,  but  the  lace-makers  were  women,  and  the  decree, 
which  was  made  about  1673,  is  a  fine  instance  of  Venetian 
business  principles,  since  the  killing  of  men  and  women 
by  assassination  was  a  measure  introduced  solely  for 
the  protection  of  trade. 

Coloured    bobbin    lace    was    also    made    in    Venice, 


IV 


LACE 


109 


with  dyed  silk  thread  and  threads  of  gold,  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  Richard  III.  of  England  desired 
his  queen  to  wear  it  on  her  cloak  at  their  coronation 
in   1483. 

The  modern  Burano  lace  was  first  made  after  the 


THE    PALACES 


end  of  the  Republic,  and  is  almost  the  only  sort  which 
is  now  manufactured  in  any  quantity.  Some  of  the 
finer  points  are  imitated,  it  is  true,  and  are  vastly 
advertised,  advertisement  having  taken  the  place  of 
assassination  in  business  methods  as  a  means  of  creating 
a  fictitious  monopoly;  but  in  spite  of  some  really  good 
pieces    of  needlework    wrought   with    great    care  —  as 


no  GLEANINGS    FROM    HISTORY  iv 

advertisements  —  the  mass  of  the  work  turned  out  is 
of    a    cheap    and    commercial    character. 

The  policy  of  \  enice  with  regard  to  her  manu- 
factures was  one  of  protection,  as  has  been  seen,  and 
the  result  was  on  the  whole  very  satisfactory  to  the 
people  as  well  as  to  the  great  merchants.  Very  heavy 
duties  were  levied  on  almost  all  imported  articles,  and 
among  the  very  few  excepted  were  the  silk  fabrics 
from  Florence  known  by  the  name  of 'ormesini.'  This 
material  was  in  such  common  use  in  Venice  that  the 
local  silk  weavers  could  not  meet  the  demand  for  it. 
One  of  the  reasons  why  the  working  people  of  Venice 
were  always  satisfied  was  that  they  were  almost  always 
prosperous;  the  price  of  labour  was  high,  while  that 
of  necessities  was  relatively  low,  and  the  people  accord- 
ingly lived  in  comfort  without  excessively  hard  work. 

On  the  other  hand,  some  of  them  were  always 
extravagant,  as  some  of  the  nobles  were,  and  some  were 
unfortunate;  and  though  there  was  no  pauperism,  there 
were  many  families  of  hopelessly  poor  persons.  In  a 
measure  the  hospitals,  hospices,  and  orphan  asylums 
provided  for  those  in  want,  but  in  Venice,  as  in  modern 
cities,  the  candidates  for  charity  were  always  just  a  little 
more  numerous  than  the  shares  into  which  charity  could 
divide  herself. 

There  were  also  those  who,  if  not  exactly  poor,  were 
in  difficulties,  the  class  that  for  ever  feeds  the  pawn- 
broker and  the  small  money-lender.  The  Republic 
exercised  the  strictest  supervision  over  these  industries, 
and  few  cities  in  the  world  ever  turned  a   harder  face 


iv  THE   JEWS  in 

against  the  inroads  of  the  Hebrews.  It  was  with  the 
greatest  unwillingness  and  with  many  precautions  that 
Jews  were  ever  admitted  into  the  city  at  all,  and  a 
special  code  provided  the  most  extraordinary  and  cruel 
penalties  for  the  most  ordinary  misdemeanours  when 
committed  by  them.  They  were  forced  to  wear  a 
special  dress  with  a  large  patch  of  yellow  on  the  chest, 
and  they  could  only  follow  the  meanest  occupations. 
In  mediaeval  Rome  it  was  the  business  of  the  Jews  to 
bury  the  Christian  dead,  but  it  often  happened  that  the 
Pope's  private  physician  was  a  Hebrew.  I  do  not  find 
that  in  Venice  they  were  ever  forced  to  be  grave- 
diggers  for  the  poor,  but  they  were  forbidden  to  act  as 
physicians  except  for  their  own  sick.  Both  Church 
and  State  rigorously  forbade  their  intermarriage  with 
Christians,  and,  so  far  as  the  happy  ending  of  the  love 
story  is  concerned,  Lorenzo  and  Shylock's  daughter 
could  never  have  married.  More  than  once,  before 
the  sixteenth  century,  the  Jews  were  expelled  from 
Venice  and  made  to  live  in  Mestre,  which  seems  to 
have  been  their  regular  headquarters,  but  they  were 
allowed  to  come  into  the  city  during  the  time  of  certain 
public  fairs.  If  they  prolonged  their  stay  beyond  the 
limit,  however,  they  became  liable  to  fine  or  imprison- 
ment. Some  of  these  measures  had  been  partly  relaxed 
by  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  but  the  Jews 
never  enjoyed  anything  like  equality  with  the  other 
citizens. 

Oddly     enough     the     money-lender     of    the     lower 
classes    in    Venice    was    the    wine-seller,    whom    the 


I  12 


GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 


IV 


people    called    the    Bastionero.     In    the    wine-shop    it 
was  customary  to  pawn  objects  for  wine  and  money 


THE    RIALTO   STEPS 


simultaneously,  one-third  of  the  value  being  given 
in  wine,  which  was  generally  watered.  If  the  pledge 
were  not  redeemed  within  three  months,  the  amount 


IV 


PAWNBROKERS 


"3 


to  be  paid  for  getting  it  back  was  increased,  and  again 
at  the  end  of  the  next  three  months,  and  so  on,  until, 


NOON   ON   THE   RIALTO 


at  the  end  of  the  year,  the  original  sum  lent  was 
doubled.  If  it  was  not  paid,  the  wine-seller  had  a 
right  to  sell  the  object  for  what  it  would  bring. 


vol.  11.  —  r 


ii4  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  iv 

A  modern  Eastern  proverb  says  that  one  Greek  can 
cheat  any  ten  jews,  but  that  one  Armenian  can  cheat 
ten  Greeks.  Considering  that  Venice  had  a  distinctly 
oriental  character  during  the  Middle  Ages,  and  since 
we  know  that  the  small  money-lending  wine-sellers 
wrere  not  Jews,  I  suspect  that  they  were  principally 
Greeks  and  Armenians,  the  more  probably  so  as  we 
know  that  great  quantities  of  Greek  and  Armenian 
wine  were  imported  into  Venice,  and  that  those  wines 
will  bear  a  good  deal  of  watering.  The  latter  is  an 
important  point,  for  it  is  manifest  that  when  the 
pledge  was  redeemed  within  the  first  three  months, 
the  lender's  profit  was  the  difference  between  the 
nominal  and  the  real  value  of  the  wTine  which  formed 
one-third    of  the    loan. 

The  government  which  tolerated  this  ignoble  occu- 
pation exhibited  the  most  extraordinary  prejudice 
against  the  government  pawnbroking  offices  which 
were  common  in  other  Italian  cities.  Historians 
have  in  vain  endeavoured  to  discover  why  this 
prejudice  went  so  far  that,  in  1524,  the  Council  of 
Ten  published  a  decree  threatening  with  death  on  the 
scaffold  any  one  who  should  even  propose  the  creation 
of  such  an  establishment.  Without  entering  into 
any  ingenious  speculation,  it  seems  possible  that  the 
Venetians,  who  were  wise  if  not  virtuous,  considered 
that  while  it  was  impossible  to  prevent  the  poor  from 
borrowing  small  sums  on  their  little  possessions,  to 
authorise  such  borrowing  by  making  the  government 
the  lender  would   greatly  increase  the  temptations   of 


IV 


THE   RIALTO 


"5 


that  more  shiftless  class  to  whom  borrowing  seems  to 
be  a  prime  necessity  of  existence. 


AT  THE    RIALTO 


The  centre  and  heart  of  all  this  activity,  good  and 
bad,  was  the  bridge  of  the  Rialto.     We  find  it  hard  to 


n6  GLEANINGS    I  ROM    HISTORY  iv 

realise  that  until  near  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  centurv 
it  was  still  built  of  wood  with  a  movable  drawbridge 
in  the  middle  to  admit  the  passage  of  larger  vessels. 
Carpaccio,  who  lived  in  the  fifteenth  century,  has  left 
us  a  faithful  representation  of  it  as  it  remained 
for  nearly  a  hundred  years  afterwards.  It  would  be 
interesting  to  place  beside  that  picture  Turner's  lost 
painting  of  the  same  subject,  a  very  beautiful  canvas 
which  I  have  twice  had  the  good  fortune  to  see  in 
the  course  of  its  more  than  mysterious  peregrinations. 
I  last  heard  of  it,  though  not  certainly,  as  being  in  the 
south   of  France. 

The  present  bridge  w^as  begun  after  infinite  hesita- 
tion in  1588,  and  was  built  after  the  designs  of 
Antonio  da  Ponte,  whose  name  was  certainly  prophetic 
of  his  career.  Twelve  thousand  elm  piles  had  to  be 
driven  into  the  soil  on  each  side  of  the  canal  to  a  depth 
of  sixteen  feet  to  make  the  foundations  of  the  arch. 
The  construction  occupied  three  years,  and  is  said  to 
have  cost  250,000  ducats,  presumably  of  silver.  The 
bridge  as  it  stands  is  a  remarkable  piece  of  work,  and 
would  be  beautiful  if  the  hideous  superstructure  of 
shops  could  be  removed.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
fifty  years  before  its  completion,  Michelangelo  offered 
the  Doge  Andrea  Gritti  a  plan  for  a  bridge,  as  is 
amply  proved  by  the  existence  of  a  picture  in  the 
Casa  Buonarotti  in  Florence  representing  the  subject. 


EVENING   OFF   S.    GEORGIO 


V 


CONCERNING  SOME  LADIES   OF  THE 
SIXTEENTH   CENTURY 

The  clever  modern  Italian  playwright,  Signor  Martini, 
makes  one  of  his  witty  characters  say  that  there  are 
'women,'  but  that  there  is  no  such  thing;  ...„,. 

°    Martini,  '  Chi  sa 

as    'woman'    in    the    abstract.      In    other    Ugmoconon 
words,    women     are  a  fact,  but    woman 
is  a  myth.     Though  this  may  be  a  little  paradoxical, 

117 


1 18  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  v 

there  are  certainly  distinct  types  of  women  in  each 
class  of  life.  The  smart  society  woman  of  to-day  and 
the  labourer's  wife,  like  the  Venetian  patrician  lady  of 
the  sixteenth  century  and  the  fisher-wives  of  Chioggia, 
have  in  common  only  their  sex,  their  weaknesses  and 
their  sufferings;  there  is  very  little  resemblance  between 
their  virtues,  and  none  at  all  between  their  joys. 

The  noble  ladies  of  Venice  in  the  sixteenth  century 
were  as  idle  and  frivolous  as  Orientals.  The  fact  must 
be  admitted  by  any  one  who  studies  the  times;  and  if 
it  is  not  of  a  nature  to  please  those  who  idealise  that 
period,  it  may  be  partly  excused  by  the  consideration 
that  the  Venetian  nobleman  treated  his  womankind 
very  much  as  a  Turk  treats  his  harem.  He  was  not 
jealous,  as  lovers  understand  jealousy;  granted  a 
certain  degree  of  beauty  and  a  dowry  of  a  certain 
value,  he  cared  very  little  whom  he  married.  When 
Kugler,  the  famous  art  critic,  says  of  Titian's  picture 
of  the  Schiava,  the  Slave,  in  the  Barberini  Gallery  in 
Rome,  that  the  name  is  utterly  meaningless,  he  shows 
that  he  knew  nothing  of  Venetian  life.  The  slave  in 
the  sixteenth  century  not  seldom  meant  everything, 
where  the  wife  meant  nothing;  and  if  the  wives  were 
idle  and  frivolous,  we  must  remember  that  when  they 
were  young  and  good-looking,  they  often  found  them- 
selves in  competition  with  beautiful  Georgian  and 
Circassian  women  for  their  masters'  favour.  Where 
women  are  plentiful,  beautiful,  and  not  clever,  the  men 
who  love  them  are  rarely  jealous.  But  those  grave 
and  magnificent  Venetians,  who  had  not  a  scruple  in 


v       LADIES   OF   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY    119 

politics,  nor  in  matrimony,  were  excessively  sensitive 
about  anything  which  touched  their  technical  honour, 
and  it  seemed  to  them  altogether  safer  and  wiser  to 
teach  their  wives  and  daughters  what  they  were  pleased 
to  call  'habits  of  domestic  seclusion.'  To  be  plain, 
they  encouraged  them  to  stay  at  home;  and  sometimes, 
by  way  of  making  obedience  easier,  they  locked  them 
up.  M.  Yriarte  says  with  partial  truth  that  their 
'seclusion'  was  that  of  the  harem,  not  that  of  the  classic 
gynaeceum;  he  did  not  realise  that  the  latter  was 
nothing  but  a  harem  too,  and  that  if  the  Greeks  kept 
their  wives  at  home,  it  was  that  they  might  sup  un- 
disturbed   in    the   society   of  Phryne. 

The  influence  of  the  East  on  everything  con- 
nected with  private  life  in  Venice  increased  with  the 
Renascence,  and  is  even  more  perceptible  then  than 
during  the  nominal  domination  of  the  Byzantine 
Empire,  when  Roman  traditions  still  had  great  force, 
and  new  currents  of  thought  reached  Venice  from  the 
Lombards. 

Yet  in  one  respect  there  was  nothing  oriental  about 
the  Venetian  noble  of  the  sixteenth  century.  When 
he  ordered  his  women  to  appear  in  public  at  all,  he 
sent  them  out  adorned  like  those  miraculous  images 
which  are  covered  with  'ex  voto'  offerings,  and  they 
mixed  in  the  crowd  that  filled  the  Piazza  of  Saint 
Mark's,  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  shameless  free. 

The  Venetian  gentleman,  so  sensitive  about  his 
technical  honour,  was  not  even  displeased  when  the 
chronicler,  the  reporter  of  his  day,  confounded  ladies 


iio  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  v 

and  courtesans  in  pompous  praise  oi  rheir  beauty  and 
dress.  One  of  the  nobleman's  principles  seems  to 
have  been  that  a  woman  was  never  in  danger  in 
public,  nor  when  her  door  was  locked  on  the  outside 
and  the  key  was  in  her  husband's  pocket,  but  that  any 
intermediate  state  of  partial  liberty  was  fraught  with  peril. 

At  home  the  Venetian  ladies  suffered  the  pains  of 
boredom  in  common  with  the  Georgians  and  Cir- 
cassians, who  not  infrequently  lived  under  the  same 
roof,  but  who  presumably  saw  something  more  of 
their  masters.  The  young  mother  had  not  even  a 
resource  in  her  children,  for  it  was  necessary  that  the 
latter  should  be  brought  up  to  be  precisely  like  their 
fathers  and  mothers,  and  in  order  to  accomplish  this 
the  fathers  kept  the  boys  with  themselves,  and  made 
them  serve  in  the  Senate  when  they  were  still  quite 
small;  whereas  it  seems  that  the  girls  were  brought  up 
largely  in  convents,  such  as  that  of  the  Vergini,  lest 
they  should  learn  too  well  from  their  mothers  what  it 
meant  to  be  the  wTife  of  a  member  of  the  Great 
Council. 

Does  any  one  remember,  in  all  the  portraits  of 
Venetian  ladies  by  Carpaccio,  Tintoretto,  Veronese,  or 
Titian,  to  have  seen  a  mother  accompanied  by  her 
little  child  ?  There  is  the  conventional  flower,  there  is 
the  jewel,  there  is  often  the  lap-dog;  but  the  child  is 
as  conspicuously  absent  as  the  effigy  of  Brutus  at 
Junia  Tertia's  funeral.  Children  were  born  and  were 
splendidly  baptized;  but  after  that  they  had  no  part  in 
their  mothers'   lives.     And   the   ladies   themselves   had 


v       LADIES   OF   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY    121 

no  great  part  in  Venetian  social  life,  except  on  its 
great  occasions  of  baptisms,  marriages,  and  funerals,  or 
in  public  ceremonies,  when  they  appeared  in  a  body, 
by  order  of  the  Ten,  in  their  richest  clothes  and  as  a 
part  of  the  decoration.  It  is  no  wonder  that  they  had 
few  friends   and  were  bored  to  extinction. 

As  a  specimen  of  what  a  young  and  noble  Venetian 
girl  could  become  if  emancipated,  one  cannot  do 
better  than  take  Bianca  Cappello.  She  was  Mutmein, 
born  in  1548  in  the  magnificent  palace  Annah. 
which  her  father,  Bartolommeo  Cappello,  had  built  for 
himself  near  the  Ponte  Storto.  Her  mother  died  when 
Bianca  was  a  little  child,  a  misfortune  which  probably 
had  no  very  great  influence  on  the  girl's  education  or 
character,  seeing  how  little  the  Venetian  ladies  occupied 
themselves  with  their  children.  She  received  the  usual 
teaching,  and  learned  to  read  and  write  after  a  fashion, 
and  such  of  her  letters  as  have  been  preserved  show 
that  her  writing  was  anything  but  good.  No  doubt 
she  had  the  usual  number  of  pet  birds  and  lap-dogs 
to  play  with,  and  plenty  of  sweetmeats,  and  when 
she  was  sixteen  she  was  very  like  other  girls  of  her 
class    and    age. 

In  Italy  young  girls  are  taught  not  to  look  out  of 
the  window  in  town.  Bianca  was  terribly  bored,  and 
she  looked  out  of  the  window.  Opposite  her  father's 
palace  was  a  house  occupied  by  two  Florentine 
burghers,  uncle  and  nephew,  Bonaventuri  by  name,  who 
represented  the  great  Tuscan  banking-house  of  Salviati. 

Bianca    looked    out    of  her   window,    dreaming,    no 


122  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  v 

doubt,  of  the  dancing  lessons  which  she  would  be 
allowed  to  have  when  she  should  be  married,  and 
of  other  similar  and  harmless  frivolities;  and  young 
Pietro  Bonaventuri  also  looked  out  of  the  window, 
neglecting  his   ledgers. 

The    girl    was    very    lonely    and    excessively    bored. 

She  never  left  the  palace  except  to  go  with  her  father 

Gaiiiccioii,     to  their  villa  in  Murano  for  a  few  weeks 

in.  210.        jn    tne    fjne    season>     She    was    not    even 

taken  to  church,  because,  some  eighty  years  earlier,  a 
young  girl  called  Giovanna  di  Riviera,  when  going  to 
mass  with  her  mother  on  the  morning  of  the  third  of 
March  1482,  had  been  picked  up  and  literally  carried 
off  by  a  too  enterprising  lover.  After  that,  young  girls 
of  good  birth  were  not  allowed  to  go  to  church,  and 
mass  was  said  for  them  in  a  little  chapel  at  home. 

Bianca  was  so  terribly  bored  that. she  began  to  make 
signs  to  Pietro  from  her  window.  She  had  nothing 
else  to  do.  One  of  her  most  important  occupations 
was  to  sun  her  hair  on  the  high  'altana.'  That  was  a 
real  pleasure,  for  the  palace  was  gloomy,  though  it  was 
new,  and  her  room  felt  like  a  prison  cell;  but  she 
could   not  be  always   sunning  her  hair. 

The  young  banker's  clerk  responded  to  her  signals 
of  distress  with  alacrity,  and  a  dumb  love  affair  began, 
apparently  highly  approved  by  the  youth's  uncle,  who 
was  a  man  of  business.  On  the  night 
between  the  twenty-eighth  and  the  twenty- 
ninth  of  December  the  two  eloped  and  got  away  from 
Venice  without   being  caught. 


v       LADIES   OF  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY    123 

Bartolommeo  Cappello's  appeal  to  the  Council 
of  Ten  is  extant.  I  give  the  most  interesting  part 
of  it:  — 

'I  shall  here  expose,  and  not  without  tears,  the 
cruel  and  atrocious  deed  of  which  I  was  the  victim 
on  the  night  of  December  the  twenty-ninth.  The 
scoundrel  Pietro  Bonaventuri,  with  the  consent  of  his 
uncle,  Giovanni  Battista,  and  of  accomplices  whom  I 
know  not  .  .  .  entered  my  house,  which  is  almost 
opposite  his,  and  carried  off  my  only  daughter,  sixteen 
years  old;  he  first  took  her  to  his  house  and  then  hid 
her  from  place  to  place,  to  my  great  dishonour  and 
that  of  all  my  family.' 

The  document  goes  on  in  a  strain  of  lamentation, 
and  ends  with  the  request  that  the  Council  of  Ten 
should  set  a  price  on  the  head  of  the  seducer,  and 
bring  the  girl  back  to  be  locked  up  in  a  convent;  and 
the  unhappy  father  offered  a  prize  of  six  thousand  lire 
to  any  one  who  would  bring  him  Pietro  Bonaventuri, 
alive  or  dead.  The  letter  expresses  more  hatred  of 
the  lover  than  sorrow  for  the  lost  child. 

The  Ten  proceeded  in  the  matter  without  delay; 
Pietro's  uncle  was  thrown  into  prison,  and  died  there 
soon  afterwards  of  a  putrid  fever.  Bianca's  woman- 
servant  and  the  latter's  husband,  who  was  a  gondolier, 
and  who  had,  of  course,  both  been  acquainted  with 
the  plan  of  her  flight,  were  arrested  and  tortured;  as 
for  Pietro  and  Bianca,  they  had  been  already  some  time 
in  Florence,  where  they  learned  that  they  had  both 
been  condemned  to  death  by  default.     The  Ten  had 


i24  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  v 

proceeded  against  the  insignificant  banker's  clerk  with 
terrible  energy. 

But  Bianca,  who  had  been  so  dreadfully  bored,  now 
had  too  much  to  do.  Pietro's  affairs  did  not  prosper, 
and  after  selling  the  jewels  she  had  brought  with  her, 
she  was  obliged  to  work  with  her  hands  in  his  house, 
which  was  not  at  all  what  she  had  bargained  for. 
Chance  favoured  her,  however,  and  she  helped  chance 
as  well  as  she  could,  and  succeeded  in  attracting  the 
notice  of  Francesco  de'  Medici.  He  was  the  son  of 
Cosmo,  the  Grand  Duke,  and  the  brother  of  Isabella, 
then  not  yet  drowned  in  her  own  basin  by  Paolo 
Giordano  Orsini,and  of  Cardinal  Ferdinando,  who  after- 
wards poisoned  his  brother  and  became  Grand  Duke. 
Francesco  lost  his  heart  to  the  beautiful  Bianca,  and 
she  had  no  objection  to  winning  it;  Pietro  Bona- 
venturi,  who  was  a  man  of  business  instincts,  but  not 
sufficiently  cautious,  had  no  objection  either.  But  old 
Cosmo,  the  Duke,  was  much  scandalised  by  his  son's 
behaviour,  though  he  himself  had  been  accused  of 
nothing  less  than  loving  his  own  daughter  Isabella,  and 
he  remonstrated  with  Francesco. 

'You  know,'  he  said,  'that  I  do  not  wish  to  weary 
you  with  preaching,  but  when  things  go  too  far  you 
must  learn  what  I  think  of  you.' 

Francesco  learned,  but  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
much  affected  by  the  knowledge,  for  he  presently 
installed  Bianca  and  her  complaisant  husband  almost 
under  the  same  roof  with  his  wife.  Pietro,  however, 
was  really  so  superfluous  that  he  was  soon  suppressed, 


v        LADIES   OF   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY    125 
after  which  his  widow  occupied  an  official  position  in 


1 


CASA   WEIDERMANN 


the  court  of  Tuscany  as  the  acknowledged  mistress  of 
the  heir  to  the  throne.     Francesco  now  attempted  to 


i26  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  v 

get  a  reversal  of  the  sentence  passed  on  Bianca  by  the 
Council  of  Ten,  and  employed  an  influential  person  to 
plead  the  cause;  but  it  was  thought  improper  that 
such  a  case  should  be  treated  in  the  name  of  old 
Cosmo  while  he  insisted  on  ignoring  Bianca's 
existence.  Cosmo  died  in  1574,  but  still  nothing  was 
done. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  any  woman  in  Bianca's 
situation  ever  went  to  such  extremes  of  treachery 
and  effrontery.  Her  victim,  the  gentle  Archduchess 
Giovanna  of  Austria,  Francesco's  wife,  died  at  last  in 
1578,  possibly  without  being  helped  out  of  the  world, 
and  Francesco  married  Bianca  secretly  two  months  later; 
but  the  marriage  was  not  announced  to  the  people  until 
the  year  of  mourning  was  over.  Bianca  was  Grand 
Duchess  of  Tuscany. 

The  effect  of  the  news  in  Venice  was  magical.  The 
Senate  made  the  following  curious  declaration :  — 

'The  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany  having  deigned  to 
choose  as  his  consort  the  lady  Bianca  Cappello,  of 
noble  Venetian  family,  endowed  with  such  great 
qualities  that  we  judge  her  worthy  of  that  dignity,  it 
is  but  right  that  our  Republic  should  exhibit  its 
satisfaction  at  the  honour  conferred  upon  it  by  this 
important  and  prudent  decision  of  the  said  Grand 
Duke.  We  therefore  decree  that  the  aforesaid  illus- 
trious and  puissant  lady,  Bianca  Cappello,  Grand 
Duchess  of  Tuscany,  be  declared  the  adopted  and 
beloved  daughter  of  our  Republic' 

Bianca's  father,  who,   being  a   good  Venetian,   was 


v       LADIES   OF  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY    127 

almost  as  good  a  man  of  business  as  Salviati's  murdered 
clerk,  and  much  more  prudent,  wrote  a  letter  full  of 
touchingly  tender  feeling  to  the  daughter  whom  he 
had  cursed  so  loudly  and  so  long;  he  and  his  sons, 
Bianca's  brothers,  were  made  Knights  of  the  Golden 
Stole,  and  all  the  records  of  the  scandalous  trial  that  had 
taken  place  fifteen  years  earlier  were  burnt.  Bianca's 
public  marriage  and  coronation  took  place  on  the  twelfth 
of  October  1579,  and  the  Republic  sent  two  ambassadors 
and  the  patriarch  Grimani  to  show  the  Grand  Duchess 
that  all  old  scores  were  forgotten.  She  was  thirty-one 
years  old. 

We  know  even  more  than  is  necessary  of  Bianca's 
life  and  intrigues.  She  survived  her  triumph  eight 
years,  till  she  and  her  ill-gotten  husband  died  of  poison 
within  a  few  hours  of  each  other;  but  whether  the 
drug  was  administered  by  the  Cardinal  Ferdinando, 
Francesco's  brother,  or  whether  the  two  meant  to  give 
it  to  him  and  took  it  by  mistake,  is  not  clear.  He 
himself  declared  that  he  had  not  poisoned  anybody. 
It  is  at  least  certain  that  he  would  not  allow  Bianca  to 
be  interred  in  the  Medici  vault,  but  had  her  privately 
buried  in  the  crypt  of  San  Lorenzo. 

The  Venetian  Republic  did  not  go  into  mourning 
for  its  'well-beloved  adopted  daughter,'  since  it  was 
best  not  to  quarrel  with  the  Cardinal  Grand  Duke, 
who  had  probably  suppressed  her,  though  his  physician 
made  an  autopsy  and  assured  the  public  that  she  had 
died  of  frightful  excesses  of  all  sorts. 

The    moral    of    this    unpleasing    tale    is    that    the 


i28         GLEANINGS    FROM    HISTORY  v 

manner  of  bringing  up  Venetian  girls  in  the  sixteenth 
century  was  not  of  a  kind  to  develop  their  better 
instincts,  for  there  is  nothing;  to  show  that  Hianca 
Cappello  was  very  different  from  other  girls  of  her 
time,  except  in  the  great  opportunities  for  doing  harm 
which  fell  to  her  share. 

Probably  the  most  enjoyable  weeks  of  a  noble 
Venetian  girl's  life  were  those  which  preceded  her 
marriage,  and  were  chiefly  spent  in  the  preparation  of 
her  wedding  outfit.  The  age  was  eccentric  as  to  dress; 
it  was  the  time  of  the  huge  Elizabethan  ruffle  and 
hoops;    in  Venice  it  was  especially  the  time  of  clogs. 

The   latter   had   been    introduced   in   the   fourteenth 

century  on   account  of   the   mud   in  the  still   unpaved 

Tr ,  .    ,       streets,    and    they    continued    to    be    worn 

Uibain  de  J 

Gkeitof,  and  grew  to  monstrous  dimensions  after 
their  usefulness  had  very  much  decreased. 
It  became  the  rule  that  the  greater  the  lady  was,  the 
higher  her  clogs  must  be,  till  they  turned  into  some- 
thing like  stilts,  and  she  could  no  longer  walk  except 
leaning  on  the  shoulders  of  two  servants.  In  China, 
the  Chinese  men,  as  distinguished  from  the  Tartars, 
encourage  the  barbarous  breaking  of  girls'  feet,  because 
it  makes  it  impossible  for  them  to  gad  about  the  town 
when  they  are  older,  and  still  less  to  run  away.  The 
Venetian  noblemen  approved  of  clogs  for  the  same 
reason. 

M.  Yriarte  tells  how  a  foreign  ambassador,  who  was 
once  talking  with  the  Doge  and  his  counsellors  in  1623, 
observed  that  little  shoes  would  be  far  more  convenient 


v       LADIES   OF  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY    129 

than  the  huge  clogs  in  fashion.  One  of  the  counsellors 
shook  his  head  in  grave  disapproval  as  he  answered : 
'  Far  too  convenient,   indeed  !     Far  too  much  so.' 

The  civic  museum  in  Venice  contains  two  pairs  of 
clogs,  one  of  which  is  twenty  inches  in  height,  the 
other  seventeen.  Some  were  highly  ornamented,  and 
the  Provveditori  alle  Pompe  made  sumptuary  regula- 
tions against  adorning  them  with  over-rich  embroidery 
or  with  fine  pearls.  At  the  same  time,  shoemakers 
were  warned  that  they  would  be  liable  to  a  fine  of 
twenty-five  lire  for  any  pair  of  clogs  not  of  proper 
dimensions  and  becoming  simplicity.  Yet  they  con- 
tinued to  be  worn  of  extravagant  size  and  excessively 
ornamented  till  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when 
they  suddenly  sank  to  nothing,  so  that  a  clever  woman 
of  the  time  complained  that  the  Venetian  ladies  were 
beginning  to  wear  shoes  no  thicker  than  a  footman's. 

They  were  especially  affected  by  the  nobles,  for  the 
burgher  class  wore  them  of  much  more  moderate  size. 
Altogether  the  life  of  the  burghers'  wives  was  far  more 
enjoyable;  they  occupied  themselves  with  music  and 
painting;  they  held  gatherings  at  which  men  and 
women  really  exchanged  ideas,  and  'academies'  at 
which  women  with  a  turn  for  poetry  or  science  could 
compare  themselves  with  the  most  gifted  men  of 
Venice. 

The  most  alive  of  the  noble  women  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  one  of  whom  we  have  the  most  vivid 
impression,  was  assuredly  Bianca  Cappello,  who  was  a 
monster   of  iniquity.     The   others,   who   had   not   her 

VOL.  II.  —  K 


i3o  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  v 

opportunities  for  great  crime,  all  seem  like  lay  figures, 
or  common  odalisques,  who  lived  a  sensuous  existence 
that  was  never  disturbed  by  an  idea.  But  the  burgher 
women  amused  themselves,  and  thought,  and  wrote,  and 
sometimes  even  allowed  themselves  a  little  sentiment. 

As  for  the  women  of  the  people,  we  know  nothing 
about  them,  as  there  are  no  documents  regarding  them, 
but  it  seems  probable  that  they  were,  on  the  whole, 
both   happy  and   honest. 

There  was  one  more  category  of  women  in  Venice, 
as  elsewhere,  a  class  that  numbered  eleven  thousand 
six  hundred  and  fifty-four  members,  towards  the  end 
of  the  century,  all  young,  many  of  them  fair,  all 
desirous  of  pleasing,  and  all,  strange  to  say,  present  at 
every  public  festival  —  the  class  of  those  who  were 
outside  of  class,  the  gay  and  shameless  free.  A 
Venetian  of  those  days  made  a  catalogue  '  of  all  the 
chief  and  most  honoured  courtesans  of  Venice  .  .  . 
their  names  .  .  .  the  lodgings  where  they  live  .  .  . 
and  also  the  amount  of  the  money  to  be  paid  by 
noblemen  and  others  who  desire  to  enter  into  their 
good  graces.'  This  list  is  dedicated  'to  the  most 
magnificent  and  gracious  Madam  Livia  Azzalina,  my 
most  respected  patroness  and  lady  .  .  .  the  princess 
of  all  Venetian  courtesans.'  Moreover,  at  the  end  of 
the  pompous  dedication,  the  writer,  who  signs  only 
his  initials,  adds  that  he  kisses  the  gay  lady's  '  honoured 
hands.' 

Some  authors,  taking  this  for  a  catalogue  made  out 
by  the  government,  inform  us  that  the  Venetian  Senate 


v       LADIES   OF  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY    131 

always  gave  courtesans  the  title  of  'deserving.'  Lord 
Orford  refuted  this  calumny  in  a  curious  pamphlet 
quoted  by  Mr.  Horatio  Brown  in  his  valuable  and 
delightful  Venetian  Studies.  The  catalogue  contains 
two  hundred  and  fifteen  names;  at  number  two  hun- 
dred and  four  stands  the  name  of  the  famous  Veronica 
Franco  —  'that  skilled  writer  of  the  sonnet  and  curiously 
polished  verses  which  say  so  little  and  say  it  so  beau- 
tifully,' says   Mr.    Brown. 

Tassini  tells  an  anecdote  in  point.  Two  gentlemen 
were  walking  one  day  over  the  bridge  near  the  Church 
of  Saint  Pantaleo,  and  they  were  confiding  to  each  other 
their  conjugal  troubles.  'Do  you  know  who  is  the 
only  honest  woman  in  Venice?'  asked  one  of  them. 
'There  she  is!'  He  painted  to  a  little  marble  head 
which  is  still  visible  in  the  front  of  a  house  below  the 
bridge.  The  story  went  the  rounds,  and  the  bridge 
itself  was  re-christened  'II  Ponte  di  Donna  Onesta.' 

The  elegance  of  the  gay  ladies  was  incredible,  and 
it  was  in  order  to  be  distinguished  from  them  that 
respectable  women  little  by  little  adopted  the  black  silk 
gown  and  veil  which  they  wore  to  the  end  of  the 
Republic.  The  veil  was  black  for  married  women  and 
white  for  young  girls. 

I  find  in  some  statistics  for  the  year  1581  the 
following  statement  as  to  the  women  of  the  better 
classes.  There  were  1659  patrician  ladies,  1230  noble 
girls,  2508  nuns,  and  1936  women  of  the  burgher 
class.  What  could  they  do  against  11,654?  The  note 
adds  that  all  the  others  were  women  of  the  people. 


IHE   GRAND   CANAL   IN    Sl'.MMEK 


VI 


A  FEW  PAINTERS,  MEN  OF  LETTERS, 
AND  SCHOLARS 


According  to  some  trustworthy  authorities,  Raphael, 
Martin  Luther,  and  Rabelais  were  born  in  the  same 
year.  The  fact  that  they  were  certainly  contem- 
poraries with  each  other  and  with  many  other  men  of 
genius  of  contradictory  types  is  one  of  the  principal 
features  of  that  most  contradictory  age.  Signor 
Molmenti  compares  the  gifts  of  Carpaccio  and  the  two 

132 


vi  PAINTERS  133 

Bellini  to  rays  that  warm  and  gladden,  those  of  Titian 
and  Tintoretto  to  lights  that  dazzle  but  give  no  heat. 
In  two  centuries  that  immense  change  in  art  had  taken 
place;  from  having  spoken  to  the  soul  it  had  come  to 
appeal  to  the  eye. 

The  best  painters  of  the  fifteenth  century  touch  us, 
and  remain  impersonal  to  us.  What  do  we  know,  for 
instance,  of  Carpaccio's  dreams  or  struggles  or  suffer- 
ings while  he  was  painting  his  great  picture  of  Saint 
Ursula  and  her  maiden  company  ?  We  gaze  upon 
those  virgin  faces,  those  crowns  of  martyrdom,  those 
tenderly  smiling  women's  lips,  those  almost  childlike 
gestures,  and  they  touch  us  deeply.  Perhaps  we  should 
like  to  ask  them  the  secret  of  Carpaccio's  melancholy 
soul.  But  the  lips  move  not,  nor  do  the  eyes  answer; 
the  eleven  thousand  maidens  seem  rather  to  beckon  us 
away  to  that  place  of  refreshment,  light  and  peace, 
where  we  may  hope  that  the  great  painter's  sadness 
ended  at  last.  They  tell  us  not  of  him,  nor  of  them- 
selves, but  of  heaven. 

A  hundred  years  have  gone  by,  and  still  artists 
paint  pictures;  but  they  tell  us  no  longer  of  anything 
but  their  own  selves,  their  own  lives,  their  own  pas- 
sions. It  is  the  world  that  has  changed;  perhaps  it  is 
not  faith  that  is  gone,  faith  the  evidence  of  things 
unseen,  but  most  assuredly  belief  has  taken  flight 
and  left  men  sceptical,  the  belief  which  is  the  mother 
of  all  bright  dreams,  and  which  must  see  in  order  to 
believe,  if  only  in  imagination,  and,  believing,  cannot 
fail  to  see. 


ij4  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

The  time  had  come  when  the  artists  were  interesting 
for  their  own  sakes  as  well  as  for  what  they  did,  and 
when  the  reporter-chronicler  thought  it  worth  while  to 
note  every  anecdote  of  their  daily  lives,  to  put  down 
the  names  of  their  models,  to  tell  us  who  sat  to  them 
for  their  Madonnas.  And  those  names  are  mostly 
names  of  good  and  honest  women,  and  we  know  to  a 
nicety  why  they  chose  this  face  for  one  purpose  and 
that  for  another.  There  is  an  end  of  all  the  legends 
of  saintly  heads  begun  by  the  artist  and  finished  before 
morning  by  an  angel's  hand.  There  is  an  end,  too,  of 
dreams  of  refreshment,  light  and  peace.  The  artists 
of  the  sixteenth  century  are  the  most  human  of  man- 
kind, the  most  subject  to  humanity's  passions,  its 
weaknesses  and  even  its  madness,  and  their  works 
bear  the  stamp  of  the  sensuous  naturalism  in  which 
they  lived. 

The  patrician  Alvise  Pisani  possessed  a  beautiful 
house  at  San  Cassian,  standing  on  a  tongue  of  land 
called  Biri  Grande.  From  the  embrasured  windows 
Murano  could  be  seen,  and  the  island  of  San  Cristoforo, 
and  of  Pace;  beyond  these,  in  the  distance,  rose  the 
tall  tower  of  Torcello,  and  a  dark  line  along  the  water 
marked  the  forest  of  the  distant  island  called  Deserto; 
to  the  left  rose  the  Euganean  Hills,  to  the  right 
stretched  a  long  beach  of  gleaming  sand.  The  fisher- 
men used  to  say  that  when  the  mysterious  glow  spread 
over  the  waters  of  the  lagoon  at  night,  the  Fata  Morgana 
had  floated  up  the  Adriatic  and  was  bathing  in  the 
dark. 


AFTERGLOW,  THE    GRAND   CANAL 


^*> 


% 


vi  PAINTERS  135 

All  those  things  might  be  seen  from  the  windows 
of  Alvise  Pisani's  house;  and  there  dwelt  Titian,  no 
longer  the  thoughtless  gallant  of  his  earlier  days,  but 
grave  now,  stately  and  magnificent.  Violante  is  for- 
gotten, he  lives  honourably  with  his  wife  Cecilia,  but  he 


EUGANEAN    HILLS    FROM    THE    LAGOON,    LOW   TIDE 

still  keeps  his  love  of  conversation,  his  luxurious  tastes, 
his  lordly  manner;  and  now  he  feels  himself  the  equal 
of  the  great  of  the  earth,  and  it  amuses  him  to  exchange 
letters  with  princes.  For  secretaries  he  has  poets, 
historians,  and  even  a  cardinal;  he  is  the  Titian  who 
will  allow  an  emperor  to  stoop  for  the  brush  that  has 
fallen   from   his   hand.     But   few  men  ever  had   such 


136  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

grace  and  winning  charm,  and  his  house  is  ever  open 
to  his  countless  friends,  a  place  of  gathering,  of  wit  and 
of  good  talk,  where  ladies  are  received,  some  of  whom 
a  later  age  will  call  blue-stockings,  ladies  who  are 
members  of  learned  academies,  and  ladies  that  play 
the   lute. 

Such  was  Titian,  and  such  the  house  in  which  he 
was  rarely  alone.  He  had  among  many  friends  two  at 
least  with  whom  he  was  really  intimate,  the  sculptor 
Sansovino,  and  Pietro  Aretino  the  man  of  letters. 
The  former  was  the  friend  of  his  heart  and  of  his 
artistic  intelligence;  the  latter  he  himself  regarded 
as  a  sort  of  wild  beast  whom  he  had  tamed  and  whom 
he  kept  to  frighten  his  rivals  and  his  enemies.  He 
could  not  let  a  day  go  by  without  seeing  both,  and  the 
three  were  generally  together.  If  one  of  them  was 
asked  to  dinner,  he  invariably  begged  his  host  to  invite 
the  other  two. 

They  certainly  did  not  resemble  one  another. 
Aretino  was  an  adventurer  who  had  tried  most  things: 
in  his  boyhood  he  had  forged  and  stolen;  in  his  young 
prime  he  had  been  a  renegade  monk,  and  then  a 
courtier;  in  his  maturity,  to  use  one  of  his  own  ex- 
pressions, he  earned  his  living  by  the  sweat  of  his  ink. 
The  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany  had  hired  a  house  for 

Tassini,  under    him  at  the  Riva  del  Carbon,  for  sixty  soldi 

Carbon.       yearly,  on  the  Grand   Canal,   and   it  was 

there  that  he  followed  an  occupation  which  procured 

him  all  the  necessaries  and  some  of  the  luxuries  of  life. 

He  made  it  his  business  to  address  the  most  abjectly 


vi  PAINTERS  137 

flattering  panegyrics  to  eminent  persons,  and  even  to 
sovereigns  like  Francis  I.  and  the  Emperor  Charles  V., 
and  they  rewarded  him  with  presents  of  money  or  old 
wine.  Or  if  some  unlucky  aspirant  to  office  was  in 
need  of  popularity  or  favour,  Aretino  quietly  explained 
to  him  that  a  little  article  from  his  own  pen  could 
make  or  mar  success;  and  there  was  nothing  to  be 
done  but  to  pay,  and  to  pay  handsomely.  Between 
the  composition  of  one  libel  and  the  next,  the  amiable 
Tuscan  lived  riotously  on  his  latest  earnings  with  his 
two  daughters  Adria  and  Austria;  in  plain  language 
he  was  a  blackmailer,  a  voluptuary,  a  man  of  the 
highest   taste,    and   of  the   lowest   tastes. 

No  one  loved  him,  but  he  was  generally  feared,  and 
was  therefore  much  sought  after.  His  house  was 
always  full,  and  it  was  said  that  it  was  MutineiH, 
impossible  to  go  there  without  meeting  Annah. 
a  scholar,  a  soldier,  and  a  monk.  He  himself  said 
pleasantly  that  the  steps  of  his  house  were  as  much 
worn  by  the  feet  of  visitors  as  the  pavement  before  the 
Capitol  was  by  the  cars  of  triumphing  Roman  generals. 
Nor  was  it  only  those  that  could  pay  blackmail  who 
mounted  the  stairs.  The  man  was  full  of  contra- 
dictions; the  poor  crept  up  to  his  door  and  did  not 
return  empty-handed.     Aretino  was  charitable. 

He  could  not  bear  to  see  a  child  crying  for  cold  or 
hunger,  nor  to  see  men  or  women  sleeping  shelterless 
in  the  streets,  and  often  he  took  in  under  his  roof 
pilgrims  and  poor  wandering  gentlemen.  On  Easter 
day  he  never  failed  to  feed  eighteen  little  beggar  children 


138  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

at  his  table.  But  when  he  was  tired  of  his  visitors, 
rich  or  poor,  he  took  refuge  with  Titian  at  San  Cassian, 
for  Titian  was  the  only  human  being  whom  he 
loved  sincerely,  and  all  the  resources  of  his  venomous 
wit  and  cruel  pen  were  at  the  disposal  of  this  one 
friend.  As  for  Titian's  other  friends,  Aretino  spared 
them,  but  the  artist's  enemies  he  harassed  without 
mercy. 

He  was  a  physical  coward,  of  course,  as  all  such 
men  are.  He  hated  Jacopo  Tintoretto  for  two  reasons, 
first,  because  his  growing  reputation  was  beginning  to 
be  a  source  of  anxiety  to  Titian,  and  secondly,  because  he 
was  too  poor  to  be  blackmailed  and  too  proud  to  show 
himself  in  Titian's  house  with  the  threadbare  clothes 
which  his  wife,  good  soul,  made  him  wear  for  economy's 
sake.  Aretino  accordingly  abused  him,  and  Tintoretto 
heard  of  it  and  determined  to  put  an  end  to  it  in  his 
own  way. 

One  day  he  met  Aretino  in  the  street,  stopped  him, 
and  proposed  to  paint  his  portrait.  The  blackmailer 
was  delighted,  as  the  picture  would  cost  him  nothing 
and  would  certainly  be  valuable,  and  he  at  once  made 
an  appointment  to  go  to  Jacopo's  studio.  On  the 
appointed  day  he  appeared  punctually,  and  seeing  an 
empty  canvas  ready  for  the  portrait,  sat  down  in  a 
becoming  attitude.  But  the  painter's  turn  had  come. 
'Stand  up!'  he  said,  and  Aretino  obeyed.  Then 
Tintoretto  pulled  out  a  long  horse-pistol.  'What  is 
this?'  asked  Aretino,  alarmed.  'I  am  going  to 
measure  you,'  replied  the  artist,  and  he  proceeded  to 


vi  PAINTERS  139 

measure  his  adversary  by  the  length  of  the  pistol. 
'You  are  two  pistols  and  a  half  high,'  he  observed; 
'now  go!'  and  he  pointed  to  the  door.  Aretino  was 
badly  frightened,  and  lost  no  time  in  getting  out  of  the 
house;  and  from  that  day  he  neither  wrote  nor  spoke 
any  word  that  was  not  flattering  to  Jacopo  Tintoretto. 
Aretino  received  another  lesson  one  day  from  the 
famous  Andrea  Calmo.  The  latter  was  an  extremely 
original  personage,  half  man  of  letters,  half  actor,  whose 
improvised  speeches  in  the  character  of  Pantaloon  were 
so  remarkable  as  to  give  rise  to  the  mistaken  belief 
that  he  had  invented  that  mask.  He  also  wrote  open 
letters  to  prominent  men,  as  Aretino  did,  and  published 
them,  and  as  his  were  quite  as  libellous  as  the  Tuscan's, 
and  sometimes  even  more  witty,  they  had 

T        r  r  1  Loves  Labour's 

an  immense  success.     In  hrty  years  they  Lost, Act iv.sc.2 
went  through   fifty  editions,   and   there  is     ^am6ruf£es 

te  J  edition,  1863). 

positive   proof  that   Shakespeare   was   ac- 
quainted with  them,  for  he  quotes  a  line  and  a  half 
from  one  of  Calmo's  works :  — 

Venetia,  Venetia, 
Chi  non  ti  vede  non  ti  pretia. 

Calmo's  chief  virtue  was  neither  patience  nor  for- 
bearance, and  it  appears  that  Aretino  irritated  him 
exceedingly.     One    day    his    nerves    could    „,,     M.  ^  J. 

0  J  •>  Molmenti,  Studt, 

bear  no  longer  with  the  Tuscan,  and  he      and  Nuovi 

hr     ,.  .  ...  Studi. 

is    reelings    in    an    ironical 

open    letter    addressed    to    the    object    of   his    dislike. 

Here  is  a  fragment  of  it :  — 


i4o  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

'You  are  not  a  rational,  natural  human  being,  but 
aerial,  celestial,  deified,  a  devout  man  and  a  calm  one, 
esteemed  by  all,  adorned  with  every  treasure  and  with 
all  the  virtues  that  no  one  being  possesses,  from  the 
East  to  the  West.  You  are  the  temple  of  poetry,  the 
theatre  of  invention,  a  very  sea  of  comparisons  —  and 
you  behave  in  such  a  manner  as  to  scare  even  the 
dead  !' 

Titian's  other  friend,  Jacopo  Sansovino,  the  celebrated 
architect,  was  also  a  Tuscan  by  birth,  but  was  of  quite 
another  stamp.  His  youth  had  been  wild,  but  he  had 
then  married  a  woman  of  great  beauty  and  refinement 
whose  name  was  Paola,  and  who  completely  dominated 
him.  The  couple  were  often  seen  at  the  house  at  San 
Cassian,  as  Titian  and  Cecilia  his  wife  often  visited 
them  in  their  dwelling  in  Saint  Mark's  Square  close 
by  the  clock  tower. 

Sansovino  was  handsome  still,  and  rather  a  fashion- 
able person,  but  excitable  withal  and  a  brilliant  talker; 
his  life  had  been  saddened  for  some  length  of  time  by 
the  wild  doings  of  his  son,  but  to  his  great  relief  the 
young  man  at  last  took  to  literature  and  the  art  of 
printing.  The  Sansovino  couple  also  made  their 
house  the  general  meeting-place  of  many  friends,  as 
Titian   did. 

»  Though  Jacopo  was  a  Tuscan,  Venice  made  every 
effort  to  monopolise  his  time  and  industry  after  he  had 
become  famous  throughout  Italy,  and  he  was  appointed 
the  official  architect  of  Saint  Mark's.  He  was  charged 
with  the  erection  of  the  Mint  and  the  Library,  and  of 


VENICE    FROM    THE    GARDEN 


. 


- 


vi  PAINTERS  141 

a  new  Loggia  to  replace  the  very  simple  one  in  which 
the  patricians  had  been  accustomed  to  gather  before  the 
meetings  of  the  Great  Council,  ever  since  the  thirteenth 
century.  How  well  he  succeeded  in  that,  the  beautiful 
construction  which  fell  with  the  Campanile  amply 
showed. 

While  he  was  at  work  on  the  Library,  Titian  was 
called  to  Rome  to  execute  an  important  commission, 
and  set  out  in  the  certainty  that  on  his  return  he 
should  find  the  building  finished  and  his  friend  covered 
with  glory.  The  construction  grew  indeed,  and  was 
soon  finished,  with  its  two  stories,  of  Doric  and  Ionic 
architecture,  and  the  balustrade  that  crowns  the  edifice, 
and  the  reallv  royal  staircase,  and  all  the  rest. 

But  unhappily,  on  the  night  of  the  eighteenth  of 
December  1545,  the  vault  of  the  main  hall  fell  in, 
with  no  apparent  reason.  Instantly  all  Sansovino's 
rivals  raised  a  terrific  outcry,  accusing  him  of  having 
neglected  the  most  elementary  rules  of  his  art,  and 
assertingthat  the  accident  was  altogether  due  to  his  negli- 
gence and  incapacity.  The  zealous  magistrate  whose 
duty  it  was  to  oversee  the  construction  of  public  build- 
ings did  not  even  wait  for  a  proper  warrant,  but  seized 
Sansovino  instantly  and  sent  him  to  prison. 

Paola    was    in    despair,    and    when    the    news    was 
generally  known,  early  on  the  following  morning,  the 
indignation  of  the  architect's  friends  knew       Mutineiu, 
no  bounds.     In  a  few  hours  Aretino  wrote         Annan. 
a  consoling  letter  to  Paola,  another  to  Titian,  explaining 
to  him  what  had  happened,  and  a  series  of  libellous 


142  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

articles  against  every  architect  in  Venice  except  Sanso- 
vino  himself.  No  one  escaped  who  could  be  supposed 
to  have  uttered  a  single  word  against  the  reputation 
of  the  artist  in  trouble.  There  was  a  certain  architect 
called  Sanmichele,  a  man  of  great  piety  —  greater  per- 
haps than  his  talent  —  a  frequenter  of  Titian's  house, 
a  rich  man,  too,  such  as  Aretino  delighted  to  fleece. 
Possibly  also  the  good  old  artist's  character  was  irritat- 
ing to  the  evil  Tuscan,  who  could  not  see  why  a  man 
should  be  both  distinguished  and  virtuous,  nor  why 
Sanmichele  should  have  a  special  mass  said  when 
he  was  about  to  begin  an  important  work.  One 
of  Aretino's  favourite  tricks  was  to  use  the  most 
frightful  language  before  the  mild  old  man,  till  the 
latter,  having  exhausted  entreaty  and  finding  reproach 
useless,  was  driven  to  buy  the  blasphemer's  silence 
with  a  handsome  present  of  rare  old  wine. 

The  occasion  of  Sansovino's  imprisonment  seemed 
to  Aretino  an  excellent  opportunity  for  venting  his 
spleen  against  the  devout  artist,  and  at  the  same  time 
for  obtaining  a  lucrative  return  for  his  industry.  He 
therefore  accused  Sanmichele  of  being  the  direct  cause 
of  his  friend's  arrest,  and  the  abuse  heaped  upon  him 
was  so  virulent  and  so  persistent  that  its  victim  was 
obliged  to  have  recourse  to  the  usual  bribe,  which  this 
time  consisted  of  a  fine  basket  of  fish. 

Sansovino's  friends  soon  triumphed,  for  they  were 
many  and  powerful.  I  do  not  know  whether  a  vaulted 
ceiling  only  just  constructed  can  suddenly  collapse  and 
fall  in  of  itself  without  some  fault  on  the  part  of  the 


vi  PAINTERS  143 

architect,  but  Sansovino  was  unanimously  declared  to 
be  entirely  innocent,  and  the  unlucky  magistrate  who, 
with  some  show  of  reason,  had  ordered  his  arrest  was 
thrown  into  prison  in  his  place. 

His  brilliantly  successful  career  continued  until  he 
was  eighty  years  of  age,  when,  being  too  old  for  work, 
he  was  succeeded  in  the  post  of  architect  to  the  Republic 
by  the  celebrated  Palladio.  After  that  he  lived  eleven 
years  longer  in  the  society  and  friendship  of  Titian,  who 
was  two  years  older  then  he.  On  the  register  in  the 
church  of  San  Basso  is  to  be  found  the  following 
entry:  'On  November  the  seventh  1570  died  Jacopo 
Sansovino,  architect  of  the  Church  of  Saint  Mark;  he 
was  ninety-one  years  old   and  he  died  of  old  age.' 

Aretino's  life  had  come  to  an  abrupt  close  fourteen 
years  earlier.  I  find  inTassini  under  the  name  '  Carbon,' 
Aretino's  place  of  residence,  a  statement  of  the  singular 
fact  that  Aretino's  death  was  predicted  a  few  months 
before  it  took  place,  though  he  was  at  that  time  per- 
fectly well.  The  author  of  the  Terremoto,  addressing  the 
Tuscan  man  of  letters,  says :  '  In  this  year  LVI  thou  shalt 
die;  for  the  appearance  of  the  star  to  the 
Wise  Men  at  the  birth  of  Our  Lord  was  held 
to  be  a  great  sign,  and  I  now  hold  the  comet  of  this  year 
to  be  a  little  sign  which  comes  on  thy  account,  because 
thou  art  against  Christ.'  In  that  year  Aretino  actually 
died.  It  is  said  that  his  death  was  caused  by  his  falling 
off  his  chair  when  convulsed  with  laughter  at  an 
abominable  story,  and  though  there  may  be  some 
exaggeration   about  the  tale,  the  physiognomy  of  the 


144  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

man  might  justify  it.  No  one  regretted  him.  In  the 
State  Archives  of  Florence  a  letter  from  a  Venetian  has 
been  found  which  says:  'The  mortal  Pietro  Aretino 
was  taken  to  another  life  on  Wednesday  evening  at  the 
third  hour  of  the  night  by  a  (literally)  cannonade  of 
apoplexy,  without  leaving  any  regret  or  grief  in  any 
decent  person.     May  God  have  pardoned  him.' 

Titian  died  six  years  after  Sansovino,  surviving  to  be 
the  last  of  the  triad  of  inseparable  friends.  He  was  then 
ninety-nine  years  of  age,  and  was  carried  off  by  the 
plague  when,  judging  from  the  picture  he  was  painting 
at  the  time  of  his  death,  he  was  still  in  full  possession 
of  his  amazing  powers.  Of  all  the  victims  of  the 
terrible  epidemic,  amongst  tens  of  thousands  of  dead, 
he  was  the  only  one  to  whom  the  Republic  granted  a 
public  funeral. 

If  we  ask  what  was  the  'social  standing'  of  Titian 
and  of  some  of  the  most  famous  Venetians,  we  shall 
find  that  they  were  simple  members  of  a  Guild,  and 
were  reckoned  with  the  working  men.  The  Golden 
Book  was  the  register  of  the  nobles,  the  Silver  Book 
was  reserved  for  the  class  of  the  secretaries,  that  is,  of 
the  burghers  or  original  citizens;  but  he  who  exercised 
an  art  such  as  painting,  sculpture,  or  architecture, 
belonged  to  the  people.  Like  the  commonest  house- 
painter,  or  the  painter  of  gondolas  and  house  furniture, 
Titian  and  Tintoretto  were  subject  to  the  'Mariegola,' 
or  charter  of  their  Guild,  and  had  to  pass  through 
the  degrees  of  apprentice  and  fellow-craftsman  before 
becoming   masters. 


VI 


PAINTERS 


H5 


The  law  was  that  'no  painter,  either  Venetian  or 
foreign,  should  be  allowed  to  sell  his  paintings  unless 
he  was  inscribed  on  the  register  of  painters  and  had 
sworn  to  conform  to  the  rules  of  that  art,'  in  other 
words,  to  the  charter  of  the  Guild.     Furthermore,  if 


HOUSE   OF  TINTORETTO 


he  sold  his  work  anywhere  except  in  his  shop,  he  was 
liable   to   a   fine   of  ten   lire. 

We  know  that  neither  Titian  nor  any  of  the  great 
artists  of  his  time  rebelled  against  these  regulations. 
They  were  all  their  lives  'brethren'  of  their  Guild,  and 
every  one  of  them  was  obliged  to  obey  the  chief  of  the 
corporation  in   all   matters  concerning  that  fraternity, 


VOL.  II.  —  L 


146  GLEANINGS   FROM  HISTORY  vi 

though  he  might  be  a  mere  painter  of  doors  and 
windows.  Jt  was  not  until  the  eighteenth  century  that 
the  artist  painters  organised  themselves  in  a  separate 
body  called  the  College  of  Painters.  The  examination 
of  Paolo  Veronese,  which  I  have  translated  in  speaking 
of  the  Holy  Office,  shows  clearly  enough  what  a  poor 
opinion  the  authorities  had  of  artistic  inspiration. 

Many  writers,  amongst  whom  Monsieur  Yriarte  is 
an  exception,  have  told  us  that  literature  and  the 
sciences  were  not  cultivated  with  any  success  in  Venice 
during  the  sixteenth  century.  It  is  at  least  true  that 
the  few  who  occupied  themselves  with  those  matters 
displayed  qualities  not  far  removed  from  genius. 

It  was  very  common  for  the  great  Venetian  nobles 
to  play  patron  to  poets,  painters,  and  architects,  and 
almost  every  name  that  became  famous  in  the  arts 
and  sciences  recalls  that  of  some  patrician  or  secretary 
who  protected  the  artist,  the  writer,  or  the  student. 
The  Republic  was  often  the  refuge  of  gifted  men  wThom 
political  or  personal  reasons  had  exiled  from  their 
homes.  Roman,  Tuscan,  and  Lombard  celebrities 
spent  their  lives  in  Venice  and  added  their  glory  to 
hers.  Who  remembers  that  Aldus  Manutius  was  a 
Roman  ?  Or  that  Gaspara  Stampa,  who  is  always 
counted  as  one  of  the  best  of  Venetian  poets,  was  born 
in  Milan  ?  The  Venetians,  too,  showed  a  wonderful 
tact  in  the  degree  of  the  hospitality  they  accorded. 
One  need  only  compare  the  reception  Petrarch  met  with 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  which  was  nothing  less  than 
royal,  with  the  good-natured  toleration  shown  to  Pietro 


VI 


MEN  OF  LETTERS 


147 


Aretino  two  hundred  years  later.  The  Republic's 
treatment  of  the  two  men  is  the  measure  of  the  distance 
that  separates  the  immortal  poet  from  the  brilliant  and 
vicious  pamphleteer.  If  the  latter  spent  some  agreeable 
years  in  Venice,  that  was  due  much  more  to  the  pro- 
tection of  a  few  friends  than  to  any  privileges  granted 
him  by  the  government. 


\ 


%  * 


■'•!*|Rt  i  r  } 


I 


HOUSE   OF   ALDUS 


There  were  certainly  a  great  many  intellectual  centres 
in  Venice  at  that  time,  and  one  might  fill  many  pages 
with  the  names  of  the  so-called  academies  that  were 
founded  and  that  flourished  for  a  time.  Almost  every 
Special  tendency  of  human  thought  was  represented  by 
one  of  them,  from  the  Aldine,  devoted  enthusiastically 


148  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

to  classic  Greek,  to  those  academies  which  adorned  their 
emptiness  with  such  titles  as  'The  Seraphic,'  'The 
Uranian,'  and  the  like,  and  which  gave  themselves  up 
to  the  most  unbridled  extravagance  of  taste.  Of  such 
follies  I  shall  only  quote  one  instance,  which  I  find  in 
Tassini  under  the  name  'Bernardo.' 

In  the  year  1538  the  will  of  that  academician  was 
opened.  He  therein  directed  his  heirs  to  have  his 
body  washed  by  three  famous  physicians  with  as  much 
aromatic  vinegar  as  would  cost  forty  ducats,  and  each 
physician  was  to  receive  as  his  fee  three  golden  sequins 
absolutely  fresh  from  the  mint.  The  body  was  then  to 
be  wrapped  in  linen  clothes  soaked  in  essence  of  aloes, 
before  being  'comfortably'  laid  to  rest  in  a  lead  coffin 
and  enclosed  in  one  of  cypress  wood.  The  coffin  was 
then  to  be  placed  in  a  marble  monument  to  cost  six 
hundred  ducats.  The  inscription  was  to  enumerate 
the  actions  and  virtues  of  the  deceased  in  eight  Latin 
hexameters,  of  which  the  letters  were  to  look  tall  to 
a  spectator  placed  at  a  distance  of  twenty-five  feet. 
The  poet  who  composed  the  verses  was  to  receive 
one  sequin  for  each.  Moreover,  the  history  of  the 
dead  man's  family  was  to  be  written  out  in  eight 
hundred  verses,  and  seven  psalms  were  to  be  composed 
after  the  manner  of  the  Psalms  of  David,  and  twenty 
monks  were  to  sing  them  before  the  tomb  on  the  first 
Sunday  of  every   month. 

We  read  without  surprise  that  this  will  was  not  exe- 
cuted to  the  letter,  and  the  tolerably  reasonable  monu- 
ment erected  to  Pietro  Bernardo  by  his  descendants, 


ENTRANCE  TO  THE  SACRISTY,  FRARI 


■ 


vi  SCHOLARS 


149 


twenty  years  after  his  death,  may  still  be  seen  in  the 
church  of  the  Frari. 

There  were  also  academies  which  bore  names,  devices, 
and  emblems  of  a  nature  that  might  well  shock  and 
surprise  us,  were  they  not  the  natural  evidences  of  that 
coming  decadence,  moral  and  artistic,  whereof  all  Italy, 
and  Venice  in  particular,  already  bore  the  germs. 

Amongst  the  great  names  that  belong  to  the  end  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  as  well  as  to  the  sixteenth,  hardly 
any  has  more  interesting  associations  for  scholars  than 
that  of  Aldus   Manutius. 

The  founder  of  the  great  family  of  scholars  and 
printers  was  born  at  Sermoneta  in  the  Pontifical  States 
in  1449,  and  was  over  forty  years  old  when  Firmin-Didot, 
he  finally  established  himself  in  Venice.  Aldc  A/a""ce- 
He  had  been  tutor  in  the  princely  family  of  Pio, 
where  he  had  educated  the  eldest  son,  and  he  himself 
added  the  name  to  his  own,  though  he  did  not  transmit 
it   to    his    descendants. 

One  of  the  legends  about  the  origin  of  printing  tells 
that  it  was  invented  in  the  Venetian  city  of  Feltre,  by 
a  certain  Castaldi,  who  was  robbed  of  his  invention  by 
Germans,  presumably  Faust  and  Guttenberg.  There  is 
probably  no  foundation  for  this  tale,  but  it  is  certain 
that  the  Venetians  brought  the  art  of  printing  to  some- 
thing near  perfection  within  a  few  years  of  its  creation, 
and  that  the  government  protected  it  by  laws  of  singular 
wisdom  and  great  severity,  in  an  age  when  the  idea  of 
copyright  was  in  its  infancy. 

Aldus  was  neither  a  money-maker  nor  a  man  given 


150  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

up  to  ambition;  he  was  a  true  artist,  and  cared  only  for 
perfecting  his  art.  When  he  first  invented  the  italic 
type  he  was  almost  beside  himself  with  delight,  and 
instantly  applied  to  the  Council  of  Ten  for  letters  patent 
to  forbid  any  imitation  of  his  work  during  ten  years. 
The  petition  is  curious,  for  Aldus  went  as  far  as  to 
suggest  to  the  Ten  the  penalties  to  be  incurred  by  any 
one  who  defrauded  him  of  his  rights,  and  they  were  by 
no  means  light. 

He  dreamed  of  never  allowing  any  work  to  leave 
his  press  which  was  less  than  perfect  at  all  points. 
When  he  meditated  the  printing  of  a  Greek  classic,  he 
gathered  about  him  all  the  most  conscientious  men  of 
letters  in  Venice;  such  men  as  Sabellico  and  Sanudo, 
the  highly  accomplished  Cardinal  Bembo,  and  Andrea 
Navagero  all  worked  at  comparing  the  best  texts,  in 
order  to  produce  one  that  should  be  beyond  criticism. 
In  the  course  of  such  profound  study,  learned  discussions 
arose  and  conclusions  were  reached  which  were  destined 
to  influence  all  scholarship  down  to  modern  times.  Little 
by  little,  and  without  any  artificial  encouragement  or 
intention,  the  workshop  of  Aldus  became  the  gravest 
of  classical  'academies';  a  vast  amount  of  work  was 
done  there,  and  a  very  small  number  of  books  were 
very  wonderfully  well  printed. 

In  two  years  five  publications  appeared,  among 
which  was  the  first  Greek  edition  of  Aristotle's  works. 
That  Aldus  might  have  done  better  is  possible,  and 
every  reader  of  ancient  Greek  must  deplore  the  selection 
of  type  he  made  for  printing  in  that  language.     It  is 


vi  SCHOLARS  151 

ugly,  unpractical,  and  utterly  inartistic,  but  such  was 
the  man's  influence  that  he  imposed  it  upon  scholars, 
and  it  is  by  far  the  most  commonly  used  type  to  this 
day.  Aldus  might  have  done  better;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  unquestionable  fact  stands  out  that  no  one,  in 
those  days,  did  half  so  well,  and  that  if  his  Greek  type 
is  unpleasing,  his  italic  is  beautiful  and  has  never  been 
surpassed;  finally,  good  copies  of  his  best  publications 
bring  high  prices  at  every  modern  sale. 

He  and  his  friends  were  busy  men,  and  spent  whole 
days  shut  up  together,  thereby  rousing  much  curiosity, 
and  attracting  many  unwelcome  visitors.  At  last  Aldus 
was  wearied  by  their  importunity,  and  the  loss  of  time 
they  caused  became  a  serious  matter.  He  composed 
the  following  notice  and  put  it  up  outside  his  press:  — 

'Quisquis  es,  rogat  te  Aldus  etiam  atque  etiam  :  ut 
si  quid  est  quod  a  se  velis  perpaucis  agas,  deinde  actutum 
abeas :  nisi  tanquam  Hercules  defesso  Atlante,  veneris 
suppositurus  humeros.  Semper  enim  erit  quod  et  tu 
agas,  et  quotquot  hue  attulerunt  pedes.' 

I  quote  the  Latin  from  Didot.  It  is  hardly  worthy 
of  the  editor,  printer,  and  publisher  of  Aristotle,  but 
Aldus  himself  printed  it  in  the  preface,  addressed  to 
Andrea  Navagero,  which  precedes  the  edition  of  Cicero's 
Rhetoric,  published  in  1514.  Here  is  a  translation 
of    it:  — 

'Whoever  you  are,  Aldus  begs  you  again  and  again, 
if  you  want  anything  of  him,  to  do  your  business  with 
few  words  and  then  to  go  away  quickly;  unless,  indeed, 
you   come   as  Hercules   to   tired  Atlas,  to   place   your 


1 52  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

shoulders  under  the  burden.  For  there  will  always  be 
something  to  do  even  for  you,  and  for  as  many  as  bend 
their  steps  hither.' 

The  story  even  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  Erasmus 
came  one  day  to  Aldus's  door  with  the  manuscript  of 
his  Adagia  under  his  arm,  but  that  he  was  discon- 
certed by  the  notice  and  was  going  away,  when  the 
great  printer  himself  caught  sight  of  him  and  made 
him  come  in. 

Aldus,  who  was  not  a  Venetian,  was  not  a  man  of 
business,  and  did  not  grow  rich  by  his  work.  He  gave 
his  time  lavishly,  for  no  true  artist,  such  as  he  was,  ever 
said  that  time  was  money;  and  his  expenses  were  very 
heavy,  not  the  least  being  that  incurred  for  the  fine 
cotton  paper  he  got  from  Padua.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  hoped  to  encourage  learning  and  to  disseminate 
a  general  love  of  the  classics.  Some  of  his  prices,  how- 
ever, were  very  high;  for  instance,  a  complete  Aristotle 
sold  for  eleven  silver  ducats,  which  Didot  considers 
equal  to  over  ninety  francs  in  modern  French  money. 
But  a  copy  of  the  Musaeus,  which  would  perhaps  sell 
to-day  for  forty  pounds  sterling,  could  be  bought  for  a 
little  more  than  one  'marcello.' 

Aldus  had  established  himself  in  Venice  about  1490. 
Eight  years  later,  a  visitation  of  the  plague  decimated 
the  population,  and  the  great  printer  himself  sickened 
of  it.  Believing  himself  all  but  lost,  he  vowed  that  if 
he  recovered  he  would  abandon  his  art,  which  would 
be  by  far  the  greatest  thing  he  could  give  up,  and 
would  enter  holy  orders.     He  recovered,  but  the  sacri- 


vi  SCHOLARS  1 53 

fice  was  greater  than  he  could  make,  though  he  was  a 
good  man,  of  devout  mind.  He  at  once  addressed  a 
petition  to  the  Pope,  begging  to  be  released  from  his 
vow,  and  M.  Didot  discovered  in  the  Archives  of  the 
Council  of  Ten  the  favourable  answer  returned  by 
Alexander  VI.,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  the 
Borgia  Pope,  of  evil  fame.  It  was,  of  course,  addressed 
to  the  Patriarch,  and  it  reads  as  follows  :  — 

Venerable  Brother  : 

Our  beloved  son  Aldus  Manutius,  a  citizen  of  Rome,  set 
forth  to  us  some  time  ago  that  when  the  plague  was  raging 
he,  being  in  danger  of  death,  took  an  oath  that  if  he  escaped 
he  would  enter  the  holy  orders  of  priesthood.  Seeing  that 
since  he  has  recovered  his  health,  he  does  not  persist  in  his 
vow,  and  seeing  that  in  his  condition  of  poverty  he  cannot 
subsist  otherwise  than  by  the  work  of  his  hands,  whereby  he 
earned  his  living,  now  therefore  he  desires  to  remain  a  layman, 
and  we  have  granted  his  petition.  We  commission  you  there- 
fore and  command  your  fraternity  to  absolve  in  our  name  the 
said  Aldus  from  the  vow  he  took,  if  he  humbly  requests  you  to 
do  so,  and  if  things  stand  as  he  says,  requiring  of  him  a  return 
by  such  other  acts  of  piety  as  it  shall  seem  good  to  your  con- 
science to  impose,  and  this  if  there  be  no  other  obstacle. 

Given  in  Rome,  August  the  eleventh,  1498,  in  the  sixth 
year  of  our  Pontificate. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  far-reaching  power  of  the 
Council  of  Ten  that  this  curious  document  should  have 
been  found  in  their  Archives. 

One  year  after  having  been  released  from  his  vow, 
Aldus  married  Maria,  daughter  of  Andrea  Torresano. 
I  do  not  know  whether  an  attachment  which  perhaps 


i54         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

dated  from  before  the  plague  could  have  had  anything 
to  do  with  the  great  printer's  aversion  to  fulfilling  his 
vow;  if  so,  the  world  is  deeply  indebted  to  his  wife. 
There  was,  however,  a  considerable  interval  in  his  career 
after  149H,  during  which  no  books  were  issued  by  the 
Aldine  press,  and  those  belonging  to  the  first  period 
have  a  much  higher  value  than  the  rest. 

Possibly  children  were  born  to  the  couple  and  died 
between  the  time  of  their  marriage  and  the  birth  of 
their  son  Paulus  Manutius  in  15 12,  three  years  before 
the  death  of  his  father  Aldus.  The  dates  show  the 
absurdity  of  the  story  that  Aldus  brought  up  his  son  to 
be  a  scholar  and  a  printer  like  himself.  He  died  when 
that  son,  who  was  destined  to  be  famous  also,  was  less 
than  four  years  old.  He  breathed  his  last  on  the  sixth  of 
January  15 16,  being  not  yet  sixty-seven  years  old,  sur- 
rounded by  his  faithful  friends  and  his  manuscripts. 
Owing  to  his  having  married  so  late,  and  to  his  son  not 
having  been  born  till  thirteen  years  after  his  marriage, 
the  lives  of  the  father  and  son  cover  the  period  between 
1449  and  1574,  no  less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  years. 

Prince  Pio,  his  former  pupil  and  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  members  of  the  Aldine  Academy,  claimed 
the  honour  of  burying  him  at  Carpi,  a  feudal  holding 
of  the  Pio  family.  His  body  was  carried  thither  with 
great  pomp,  and  he  was  laid  in  state  in  the  church  of 
Saint  Patrinian,  surrounded  by  bo"bks,  and  was  finally 
buried  in  the  Prince's  family  vault. 

Another  and  very  original  type  of  scholar  was  Marin 


vi  SCHOLARS  1 55 

Sanudo,  whose  name  occurs  so  constantly  in  all  writings 
that    deal    with    the    sixteenth    century    in    ,,  ,    „ 

J  Marin  Sanudo, 

Venice.     He  was  of  a  patrician  family,  and  Diario ,- Muti- 

i  i  •  j  i  i     nelli.  Annali, 

was  so  early  predisposed  to  observe  and 
note  everything  of  interest  that  when  he  was  only  eight 
years  old  he  copied  the  inscriptions  which  Petrarch  had 
written  under  the  pictures  in  the  hall  of  the  Great 
Council,  and  it  is  thanks  to  his  childish  industry  that 
we  know  the  nature  of  those  great  works  which  were 
destroyed  in  the  fire  of  1474. 

As  the  child  grew  up  he  cultivated  the  habit  of 
making  notes  of  all  he  saw  and  heard;  and,  though  he 
strictly  adheres  to  the  principle  of  relating  daily  events 
briefly  and  clearly,  he  constantly  reveals  himself  to  us 
as  a  man  of  broad  views  and  keen  sight,  cautious, 
slightly  sceptical,  and  thoroughly  independent.  As 
soon  as  he  had  attained  the  required  age  he  was 
admitted  to  the  Council,  and  he  kept  a  journal  of 
everything  that  happened  there.  It  is  surprising  to 
find  that  a  government  which  knew  everything  should 
allow  any  one  such  full  liberty  to  make  notes.  Possibly 
the  value  of  his  work  was  not  at  first  understood,  but 
when  it  was,  the  manner  in  which  appreciation  showed 
itself  was  not  flattering  to  the  chronicler. 

The  Republic  always  employed  a  regular  official 
historian  whose  business  it  was  to  narrate  the  deeds 
and  misdeeds  of  the  government  in  a  manner  uniformly 
pleasant  to  Venetian  vanity.  One  of  the  most  successful 
writers  in  this  manner  was  the  untrustworthy  Sabellico, 
and  when  he  died  Marin  Sanudo  aspired  to  succeed 


156  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

him,  being  in  poor  circumstances,  and  having  on  several 
occasions  rendered  services  to  the  Republic.  But  to 
his  infinite  mortification  Cardinal  Bembo  was  appointed 
to  the  post,  and,  as  if  to  add  insult  to  injury,  Sanudo 
was  requested  to  place  his  valuable  diaries  at  the  disposal 
of  the  new  public  historian.  Sanudo  was  deeply  hurt, 
as  may  be  imagined,  but  he  w7as  poor  and  in  debt,  and 
the  paternal  government  of  his  business-like  country 
easily  drove  him  to  the  wall.  For  the  use  of  his  diary, 
and  for  his  promise  to  bequeath  it  to  the  State  at  his 
death,  he  accepted  a  pension  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
ducats  (£112)  yearly.  This  small  stipend  was  not 
enough  to  lift  him  out  of  poverty.  The  expense  of 
the  paper  which  he  used  for  his  notes  was  a  serious 
item  in  his  little  budget,  and  the  binder's  bill  was  a 
constant  source  of  anxiety.  He  was  often  obliged  to 
borrow  money,  and  once  he  was  imprisoned  for  debt. 
On  the  latter  occasion  he  made  the  following  entry  in 
his  journal :  — 

'December  eighteenth,  1516.  —  On  this  day  in  the 
morning  a  dreadful  thing  happened  to  me.  I  was  going 
to  Saint  Mark's  to  hear  mass  as  usual  when  I  was  recog- 
nised by  that  traitor  Giovanni  Soranzo,  to  whom  I  have 
owed  a  hundred  ducats  for  ten  years,  and  forty-seven 
for  a  debt  before  that.  Now  I  had  solemnly  promised 
that  I  would  pay  him  the  money,  but  in  order  to 
shame  me  he  had  me  imprisoned  till  next  day  in  San 
Cassian.  I  vow  to  be  avenged  upon  him  with  my 
own  hands.' 

Having  vented  his  wrath  on  paper,  Sanudo  promptly 


VI 


SCHOLARS 


'57 


forgot    his    sombre    vows    of  vengeance.        For    many 
years    afterwards    he    went    backwards    and    forwards 


S.   GIACOMO   IN    ORIO 


between  the  ducal  palace  and  his  own  house  at  San 
Giacomo  in  Orio,  where  he  had  collected  books  and 
prints  to  a  very  great  value.     He  was  almost  forgotten 


158  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

until  very  recent  times,  when  he  was  rediscovered  in  his 
diary,  and  treated  with  the  honour  he  deserves  by  his 
own  countrymen. 

There  was  no  university  in  Venice,  but  the  govern- 
ment encouraged  those  teachers  who  established  them- 
selves in  the  city  and  gave  instruction  in  their  own 
homes.  In  this  way  they  formed  little  schools  which 
quarrelled  with  each  other  over  definitions,  syllogisms, 
and  etymologies  in  the  most  approved  fashion.  There 
is  a  good  instance  of  one  of  these  miniature  civil  wars 
in   connection  with   the   historian   Sabellico.       He  was 

ckogna,  ferociously  jealous  of  a  certain  learned 
iscriziom,  1. j.//.  priest  called  Ignatius,  who  taught  litera- 
ture, as  he  did,  and  had  many  more  scholars.  In  his 
lectures  Sabellico  attacked  Ignatius  furiously,  and  did 
his  best  to  destroy  his  reputation.  The  priest  on  his 
side  held  his  tongue,  and  waited  for  a  chance  of  giving 
his  hot-headed  adversary  a  lesson.  At  last  Sabellico  pub- 
lished a  very  indifferent  work,  of  which  the  priest  wrote 
such  a  keen  criticism  that  the  book  was  a  dead  failure. 
The  State  historian's  rage  broke  out  in  the  most  violent 
invectives,  and  from  that  time  Ignatius  was  his  night- 
mare, and  the  mere  mention  of  his  name  drove  him 
into  uncontrollable  fury,  until,  dying  at  last,  Sabellico 
realised  that  his  hatred  of  the  priest  had  been  the 
mortal  sin  of  his  life,  and  on  his  deathbed  he  sent  for 
him  and  asked  for  a  reconciliation.  Ignatius  freely 
pardoned  him,  and  even  delivered  a  very  flattering 
funeral  oration  over  his  body  a  few  days  later. 

A   distinguished    man   of  this    period   who    deserves 


vi  SCHOLARS  159 

mention  was  Federigo  Badoer,  who  may  almost  be  said 


2LJ&3 


DOORWAY    OF   THE    SACRISTY.    S.    GIACOMO    IN    ORK 


to  have  been  educated  in  the  printing  press  of  Aldus, 


160  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

and  afterwards  became  the  friend  of  Paulus  Manutius. 
Like  all  Venetian  nobles,  he  learned  from  his  boyhood 
how  he  was  to  serve  the  State,  and  became  acquainted 
with  the  working  of  its  administration,  and  he  was  soon 
struck  by  the  condition  of  the  Code.  The  laws  had 
multiplied  too  much,  and  were  often  obscure,  and  the 
whole  system  was  in  great  need  of  revision.  Badoer 
conceived  the  idea  of  founding  an  academy  for  the 
purpose  of  editing  and  printing  the  whole  body  of 
MuHneili,  Venetian  Law;  the  Council  of  Ten  gave 
Annah.  him  their  approval,  and  he  founded  the 
Academy  of  'La  Fama'  —  of  Fame  —  with  the  singularly 
inappropriate  motto,  'I  fly  to  heaven  and  rest  in  God.' 
The  printing  of  the  new  Code  was  entrusted  to  Paulus 
Manutius. 

My  perspicuous  reader,  having  recovered  from  his 
astonishment  at  the  unexpected  liberality  of  the  Council 
of  Ten,  has  already  divined  that  such  a  fit  could  not 
last  long,  and  that  Badoer  and  his  noble  academy  were 
doomed  to  failure.  Badoer  was  not  rich  enough  to 
bear  the  expense  of  such  an  undertaking  alone,  and  the 
Ten  had  no  intention  of  helping  him.  Moreover,  he 
and  the  scholars  of  his  academy  kept  up  a  continual 
correspondence  with  doctors  of  law  in  other  countries. 
It  would  have  seemed  narrow-minded,  however,  to 
suppress  the  academy  by  a  decree;  it  was  more  in 
accordance  with  the  methods  of  the  Council  to  accuse 
Badoer  of  some  imaginary  misdeed  for  which  he  could 
be  brought  to  trial.  Accordingly,  though  he  had 
sacrificed    his    own    fortune    in    the    attempt,    he    was 


VI 


SCHOLARS 


161 


accused  of  having  embezzled  the  academy's  funds,  and 
in  three  years  from  the  time  of  his  setting  to  work  the 


FONDAMEN'TA    SANl'DO 


academy  was  crushed  out  of  existence,  and  he  was  a 
ruined  man. 

Another    shortlived    but    celebrated    literary    society 


VOL.    II.  —  M 


1 62  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

was  that  of  the  'Pellegrini,'  the  'Pilgrims,'  whose 
pilgrimage  led  them  only  from  their  solemn  palaces 
in  Venice  to  the  pleasant  groves  of  Murano,  and  was 
performed  by  moonlight  when  possible.  The  pilgrims 
were  Titian,  Sansovino,  Navagero,  Gaspara  Stampa, 
the  old  Trifone,  Collaltino  di  Collalto,  and  some  others, 
and  it  is  very  unlikely  that  their  evening  meetings  had 
any  object  except  pleasant  converse  and  intellectual  re- 
laxation. We  know  something  about  the  lovely  Gaspara 
and  Collalto,  at  all  events,  and  it  can  be  safely  said  that 
they  were  more  pleasantly  occupied  than  in  conspiracy, 
and  that  what  they  said  to  each  other  concerned  neither 
the  Doge  nor  the  Council  of  Ten. 

Though  there  was  no  university  in  Venice,  the 
Republic  possessed  one  of  the  most  renowned  in 
Europe  by  right  of  having  conquered  and  annexed 
Padua;  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  because  that 
great  institution  of  learning  was  not  situated  in  Venice 
itself,  it  was  allowed  a  degree  of  liberty  altogether 
beyond  Venetian  traditions. 

Padua  was  temporarily  obliged  to  submit  to  Louis 
XII.  of  France  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  but  the  Republic  took  it  again  in  1509,  and 
from  that  date  until  1797  there  was  never  the  least 
interruption  in  the  academic  courses.  The  only  in- 
fluence exercised  upon  the  university  by  the  Venetian 
government  was  intended  to  give  it  a  more  patrioti- 
cally Venetian  character.  In  earlier  times  the  Bishop 
of  Padua  had  been  ex  officio  the  Rector  of  the  uni- 
versity; he  was  now  deprived  of  this  dignity,  which  was 


vi  SCHOLARS  163 

conferred  jointly  on  three  Venetian  nobles,  who  were 
elected  for  two  years,  and  were  required  to  reside  in 
Venice  and  not  in  Padua,  lest  they  should  be  exposed 
to  influences  foreign  to  the  spirit  of  the  Republic. 
Their  title  was  '  Riformatori  dell'  Universita,'  and  great 
care  was  exercised  in  choosing  them.  They  were  also 
the  official  inspectors  of  the  Venetian  schools  and  of  the 
national  libraries,  and  it  was  their  business  to  examine 
candidates  for  the  position  of  teachers  in  any  authorised 
institution. 

They  were  no  doubt  terrible  pedants,  inwardly 
much  dignified  by  a  sense  of  their  great  responsibilities, 
and  to  this  day,  in  northern  Italy,  it  is  said  of  a  man 
who  wearies  his  family  and  his  acquaintances  with  per- 
petual 'nagging'  —  there  is  no  dictionary  word  for  it  — ■ 
that  he  is  like  a  'Riformatore'  of  the  University  of 
Padua,  though  the  good  people  who  use  the  phrase 
have  no  clear  idea  of  what  it  means. 

These  three  patricians  had  an  official  dress  of  their 
own,  which  was  a  long  robe,  sometimes  black  and 
sometimes  of  a  violet  colour,  changing  Yriaru,Vie; 
according  to  some  regulation  which  is  Rom- w- *&' 
not  known,  but  always  made  with  sleeves  of  the 
'ducal'  pattern;  and  they  put  on  a  black  stole  over  it. 
If  one  of  them  was  a  Knight  of  the  Golden  Stole,  as 
often  happened,  his  robe  was  of  velvet  and  his  stole 
was  of  cloth  of  gold. 

The  Holy  See  was  not  much  pleased  by  the  way 
in  which  the  Republic  treated  the  Bishop  of  Padua, 
and    constantly   complained   that   the   students    of  the 


1 64         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

University  were  allowed  too  much  license  to  express 
opinions  that  ill  accorded  with  Catholic  dogma.  Like 
all  commercial  countries,  Venice  was  Protestant  in 
so  far  as  any  direct  interference  of  the  Vatican  was 
concerned.  Mr.  Brooks  Adams  was,  I  think,  the 
first  to  point  out  the  inseparable  connection  between 
Protestantism  and  commercial  enterprise,  in  his  extra- 
ordinary study,  The  Law  of  Civilization  and  Decay. 
The  peculiarity  of  Venice's  religious  position  was  that 
it  combined  an  excessive,  if  not  superstitious,  devotion 
to  the  rites  of  the  Church  with  something  approaching 
to  contempt  of  the  Pope's  power. 

The  University  of  Padua  was  resorted  to  by  stu- 
dents of  all  nations,  including  many  English  gentle- 
men. In  the  Archives  of  the  Ten  a  petition  has  been 
found  signed  by  a  number  of  foreign  students  in  Padua 
to  be  allowed  to  wear  arms,  and  we  find  that  the 
Rom.  iv.  449,  necessary  permission  for  this  was  granted 
noteS.  \n   j^g  to  gjr  Thomas  Wyatt,  'a  Knight 

of    the    English    Court,'    Sir  Cotton,    Sir    John 

Arundel,  Christopher  Mayne,  Henry  Williams,  and 
John  Schyer  ( ?). 

It  is  amusing  to  find  that  the  French  students  in 
Padua  excelled  in  fencing,  riding,  dancing,  and  music, 
but  apparently  not  in  subjects  more  generally  considered 
academic. 

I  cannot  close  this  chapter  without  saying  a  few 
words  about  Galileo  Galilei,  who  was  for  some  time  in 
the  employ  of  the  Republic.  I  quote  from  his  life, 
written  by  his  pupil  Viviani,  but  not  published  till  1826. 


vi  SCHOLARS  165 

After  lecturing  in  Pisa  for  three  years  Galileo  was 
appointed  by  the  Venetian  government  to  be  professor 
of  mathematics  in  Padua  for  a  term  of  six 
years,  during  which  he  invented  several 
machines  for  the  service  of  the  Republic.  Copies  of 
his  writings  and  lectures  of  this  time  were  scattered 
by  his  pupils  throughout  Italy,  Germany,  France,  and 
England,  often  without  his  name,  for  he  thought  them 
of  such  little  importance  that  he  did  not  even  protest 
when  impostors  claimed  to  be  the  authors  of  them. 
During  this  period,  says  Viviani,  he  invented  'the 
thermometers  (sic)  .  .  .  which  wonderful  invention 
was  perfected  in  modern  times  by  the  sublime  genius 
of  our  great  Ferdinand  II.,  our  most  serene  reigning 
sovereign  .  .  .,'  the  Cardinal  Grand  Duke  who 
poisoned  his  brother  and   Bianca  Cappello. 

At  the  end  of  his  term  Galileo  was  re-appointed  for 
six  years   more,   and   during  this  time   he  observed   a 
comet  in  the   Dragon,   and   made   experi- 
ments   with    the    magnet.       He    was    re- 
appointed again  and  again  with  an  increase  of  salary. 

In  April  or  May,  in  1609,  when  he  was  in  Venice, 
it  was  reported  that  a  certain  Dutchman  had  presented 
Maurice  of  Nassau  with  a  sort  of  eyeglass  which  made 
distant  objects  seem  near.  This  was  all  that  was  known 
of  the  invention,  but  Galileo  was  so  much  interested  by 
the  story  that  he  returned  to  Padua  at  once,  and  in  the 
course  of  a  single  night  succeeded  in  constructing  his 
first  telescope,  in  spite  of  the  poor  quality  of  the  lenses 
he  had,  and  on  the  following  day  he  returned  to  Venice 


166         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vi 

and  showed  the  instrument  to  his  astonished  friends. 
After  perfecting  it  he  resolved  to  present  it  to  the 
reigning  Doge,  Leonardo  Dona,  and  to  the  whole 
Venetian  Senate. 

I  translate  literally  the  letter  he  wrote  to  the  Doge 
to  accompany  the  gift. 

Most  Serene  Prince  :  Galileo  Galilei,  your  Serenity's  most 
humble  servant,  labouring  assiduously  and  with  all  his  heart 
not  only  to  do  his  duty  as  lecturer  on  mathematics  in  the 
University  of  Padua,  but  also  to  bring  your  Serenity  some 
extraordinary  advantage  by  means  of  some  useful  and  signal 
discovery,  now  appears  before  you  with  a  new  device  of  eye- 
glass, the  result  of  the  most  recondite  theories  of  perspective ; 
the  which  [invention]  brings  objects  to  be  visible  so  near  the 
eye  and  shows  them  so  large  and  distinct,  that  what  is  distant, 
for  instance,  nine  miles,  seems  as  if  it  were  only  one  mile 
away,  a  fact  which  may  be  of  inestimable  service  for  every 
business  and  enterprise  by  land  and  sea  ;  for  it  is  thus  possible, 
at  sea,  to  discover  the  enemy's  vessels  and  sails  at  a  far  greater 
distance  than  is  customary,  so  that  we  can  see  him  two  hours 
and  more  before  he  can  see  us,  and  by  distinguishing  the  num- 
ber and  nature  of  his  vessels,  we  can  judge  of  his  forces  and 
prepare  for  a  pursuit,  or  a  battle,  or  for  flight.  In  the  same 
manner,  on  land,  the  quarters  and  the  defences  of  the  enemy 
within  a  strong  place  can  be  descried  from  an  eminence,  even 
if  far  away  ;  and  even  in  the  open  country,  it  is  possible  with 
great  advantage  to  make  out  every  movement  and  preparation  ; 
moreover,  every  judicious  person  will  clearly  perceive  many 
uses  [for  the  telescope] .  Therefore,  deeming  it  worthy  to  be 
received  and  considered  very  useful  by  your  Serenity,  he 
[Galileo]  has  determined  to  present  it  to  you,  and  to  leave  it 
to  your  judgment  to   determine  and   provide  concerning  this 


vi  SCHOLARS  167 

invention,  in  order  that,  as  may  seem  best  to  your  prudence, 
others  should  or  should  not  be  constructed.  And  this  the 
aforesaid  Galilei  presents  to  your  Serenity  as  one  of  the  fruits 
of  the  science  which  he  has  now  professed  in  the  University 
of  Padua  during  more  than  seventeen  years,  trusting  that  he 
is  on  the  eve  of  offering  you  still  greater  things,  if  it  please  the 
Lord  God  and  your  Serenity  that  he,  as  he  desires,  may  spend 
the  rest  of  his  life  in  the  service  of  your  Serenity,  before  whom 
he  humblv  bows,  praving  the  Divine  Majesty  to  grant  you  the 
fulness  of  all  happiness. 

The  letter  is  not  dated,  but  on  the  twenty-fifth  of 
August  1609  the  Signory  appointed  the  astronomer 
professor  for  life,  with  'three  times  the  highest  pay 
ever  granted  to  any  lecturer  on  mathematics.' 

It  was  in  Padua  that  Galileo  invented  the  micro- 
scope, observed  the  moon's  surface,  and  the  spots  on 
the  sun,  discovered  that  the  milky  way  and  the  nebulae 
consist  of  many  small  fixed  'stars,  discovered  Jupiter's 
moons,  Saturn's  rings,  and  the  fact  that  Venus  revolves 
round  the  sun,  'and  not  below  it,  as  Ptolemy  believed.' 

Much  has  been  written  of  late  about  Galileo,  but 
most  of  what  has  appeared  seems  to  be  founded  on  this 
life  by  his  pupil  Viviani. 


«      zn_  ^ 


VII 


THE  TRIUMPHANT  CITY 


When  Philippe  de  Commines  came  to  Venice  in  1495 
as  ambassador  of  Charles  VIII.  he  wrote:  'This  is  the 
most  triumphant  city  that  ever  I  saw.' 

He  meant  what  he  said  figuratively,  no  doubt,  for 
in  that  day  there  was  something  overwhelming  about 
the  wealth  and  splendour,  and  the  vast  success  of  the 
Republic.     But  he  meant  it  literally  too,  for  no  state 


vii  THE  TRIUMPHANT  CITY  169 

or  city  of  the  world  celebrated  its  own  victories  with 
such  pomp  and  magnificence  as  Venice. 

The  Venetians  had  never  been  altogether  at  peace 
with  the  Turks,  in  spite  of  the  treaty  which  had  been 
made  soon  after  the  fall  of  Constantinople; 
but  when  Venice  herself  was  threatened 
by  all  the  European  powers  together,  it  was  with  the 
highest  satisfaction  that  she  saw  the  Moslems  attack 
her  old  enemies  the  Hungarians.  Yet  her  joy  was 
of  short  duration,  for  the  Emperor  soon  made  peace 
with  the  Sultan.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the 
Imperial  throne  had  then  already  been  hereditary  in  the 
Hapsburg  family  for  many  years. 

The  character  of  Turkish  warfare  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean was  always  piratical,  of  the  very  sort  most 
certain  to  harass  and  injure  a  maritime  commercial 
nation  like  Venice,  and  the  latter  began  to  lose  ground 
steadily  in  the  Greek  archipelago,  and  now  found  her- 
self obliged  to  defend  the  coasts  of  the  Adriatic  against 
the  Turks  as  she  had  formerly  defended  them  against 
the  pirates  of  Narenta.  From  time  to  time  a  Turkish 
vessel  was  captured,  and  hundreds  of  Christian  slaves 
were  found  chained  to  the  oar. 

There  were  also  other  robbers  along  the  Dalmatian 
coast,  who  exercised  their  depredations  against  Turks 
and     Christians     alike,     with     admirable       Niccoibda 

/-r^i  1  11     1      <tt  Ponte  triumphs 

equity.      1  hese    were    the    so-called      Us-  over  the  Uscocchi; 
cocchi,'  a  name  derived  from  a  Slav  root    Tmtore^  IIa'1 

of  tin' 

meaning  to  'leap  out' — hence,  those  who     Great  Council. 
had  escaped  and  fled  their  country  and  were  outlaws. 


i;o         GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  vn 

About    this    time   the    island    of  Cyprus    had    fallen 

in  part   under  Turkish   domination.     The  Turks   had 

Ocogna, her.    made  a  piratical  descent  upon  Nicosia,  and 

Ven.  in.  ij.f.     }ia(j  carrje(l  0ff  all  the  women  who  were 

still  young  enough  for  the  Eastern  market.  But  one 
of  these,  a  heroine  whose  name  is  lost,  fired  the  ship's 
powder-magazine  and  saved  herself  and  her  com- 
panions from  outrage  by  causing  the  instant  death 
of  every  soul  on  board.  This  was  in  the  latter  half 
of  the  sixteenth  century. 

Thirsting  for  vengeance,  the  Venetians  now  eagerly 

joined  Philip  II.  of  Spain  in  the  league  proposed  by 

Death  of  m      trie  P°Pe-     The  three  fleets  were  to  meet 

Bragadin,un-    at  Messina,  and  much  precious  time  was 

known;   Church  .  .  *_ 

ofss.  Giovanni  lost,  during  which  the  1  urks  completed 
e  Paolo.  the},-  conquest  of  Cyprus,  which  was 
heroically  defended  by  Marcantonio  Bragadin.  His 
fate  was  horrible.  His  nose  and  ears  were  cut  off, 
and  he  was  obliged  to  witness  the  death  of  his  brave  com- 
panions, Tiepolo,  Baglione,  Martinengo,  and  Quirini. 
They  were  stoned,  hanged,  and  carved  to  shreds  be- 
fore his  eyes,  and  a  vast  number  of  Venetian  soldiers 
and  women  and  children  were  massacred  before  him 
during  the  following  ten  days.  At  last  his  turn 
came  to  die;  he  was  hung  by  the  hands  in  the  public 
square  and  slowly  skinned  alive.  It  is  said  that  he 
died  like  a  hero  and  a  saint,  commending  his  soul  to 
God,  and  forgiving  his  enemies. 

The    ferocious    Mustapha,    by    whose    orders    these 
horrors  were  perpetrated,  ordered  his  skin  to  be  stuffed 


vii  THE  TRIUMPHANT  CITY  171 

and    had    it    carried    about    the    streets,    under    a    red 
umbrella,   in   allusion   to  the   arms  of  the      Moimmti, 
Bragadin  family.     The  hideous  human  doll    **■  VenUr' 
was  then  hoisted  to  the  masthead  of  Mustapha's  ship 
as  a  trophy  and  taken  in  that  way  to  Constantinople. 

But  in  his  lifetime  Bragadin  had  ransomed  a  certain 
man  of  Verona  from  the  Turks,  and  had  earned  his 
undying  gratitude.  This  Veronese,  hearing  of  his 
benefactor's  awful  end,  swore  to  bring  home  his  skin, 
since  nothing  else  remained,  and  with  incredible  skill 
and  courage  actually  entered  the  Turkish  arsenal  at 
Constantinople,  where  the  trophy  was  kept,  stole  it  and 
brought  it  home.  It  is  related  that  the  skin  was  found 
as  soft  as  silk  and  was  easily  folded  into  a  small  space; 
it  is  preserved  in  the  church  of  San  Giovanni  e  Paolo. 

The  vengeance  of  the  league  was  slow,  but  it  was 
memorably  terrible;    in   1571  Don  John  of  Austria,  a 
stripling  of  genius,  scarcely  six  and  twenty 
years  of  age,  commanded  the  three  fleets     a.  vuentini; 

1    1      1    /"11  •  T  ducal  palace. 

and  led  Christianity  to  victory  at  JLepanto. 
One  of  the  decisive  battles  of  the  world,  checked  the 
Mohammedan  power  for  ever  in  the  Gulf  of  Corinth, 
and  the  blood  of  eighty  thousand  Turks  avenged  the 
inhuman  murder  of  Bragadin  and  the  self-destruction 
of  the  captive  Venetian  women. 

Not  many  days  later,  on  the  eighteenth  of  October 
1571,  the  great  'Angel  Gabriel,'  a  galley  of  war,  came 
sailing   into    the    harbour   of  Venice,    full      Moimmti, 
dressed  with  flags,  and  trailing  in  her  wake    Seb-  Venter- 
a  long  line  of  Turkish  standards,  and  turbans  and  coats. 


1 72  GLEANINGS    FROM   HISTORY  vn 

Then  the  cannon  thundered,  and  the  crew  cried 
'Victory!  Victory!'  and  the  triumphant  note  went 
rolling  over  Venice,  while  Onofrio  Giustiniani,  the 
commander  of  the  man-of-war,  went  up  to  the  ducal 
palace.  Then  the  people  went  mad  with  jov,  and 
demanded  that  all  prisoners  should  be  set  free  in 
honour  of  the  day;  and  the  Council  allowed  at  least 
all  those  to  be  liberated  who  were  in  prison  for  debt. 
Then,  too,  the  people  cried  'Death  to  the  Turks!'  and 
would  have  massacred  every  Mussulman  in  the  Turks' 
quarter;  but  to  the  honour  of  Venice  it  is  recorded 
that  the  government  was  strong  enough  to  hinder  that. 
And  then  the  Doge,  Aloise  Mocenigo,  found  his 
way  through  the  closely  packed  crowd  to  the  Basilica, 
Aioise  Mocenigo,  and  fifty  thousand  voices  sang  'Te  Deum 
Praying  mtor.  iaU(}arnus    Domine,'    till    the    triumphant 

etto  ;  Sala  del  l 

Coiiegio.  strain  must  have  been  heard  far  out  on  the 
lagoon.  During  four  days  processions  marched  through 
the  streets  and  hymns  of  victory  and  thanksgiving  were 
sung;  the  greatest  battle  of  the  age  had  been  fought 
and  won  on  the  feast  of  Saint  Justina,  who  was  one 
of  the  patrons  of  Venice.  In  return  for  her  military 
assistance  an  enthusiastic  and  devout  people  resolved  to 
set  up  a  statue  of  her  in  the  Arsenal  and  to  build  her  a 
church  in  Padua,  as  she  already  had  one  in  Venice. 

Religious     obligations     being     thus     cancelled,     the 

universal  rejoicing  manifested  itself  in  civic  pageantry, 

and,  to  use  a  modern  expression,  the  Vene- 

Rom.vi.317.        .  111  1  1   •!   •   •  r      1 

tians    held    a    general    exhibition    or    their 
treasures.     The  square  of  the  Rialto  was  draped  with 


vii  THE  TRIUMPHANT  CITY  173 

scarlet  cloth,  on  which  were  hung  the  pictures  of  the 
most  famous  masters,  at  a  time  when  some  of  the  great- 
est that  ever  lived  were  alive  in  Venice  and  at  the  height 
of  their  glory.  In  the  midst  of  the  square  a  trophy 
was  raised,  composed  of  Turkish  arms  and  banners, 
turbans,  slippers,  jewels,  and  all  sorts  of  ornaments 
taken  from  the  slain.  From  the  jewellers'  lane  to 
the  bridge  a  canopy  of  blue  cloth  covered  with  golden 
stars  was  spread  high  across  the  way,  the  most  precious 
tapestries  were  hung  on  the  walls  of  the  houses,  the  shops 
showed  all  their  most  artistic  wares  in  their  windows. 
The  German  quarter  was  so  crammed  with  beautiful 
objects  that  it  seemed  one  great  enchanted  palace.  To 
increase  the  general  gaiety,  the  government  made  a 
special  exception  and  allowed  masks  in  the  streets. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  Venice  really  obtained 
little  or  no  immediate  advantage  from  the  battle  of 
Lepanto,  her  frenzy  of  triumph  may  seem  exaggerated; 
yet  it  was  moderate  compared  with  the  reception  Rome 
gave  to  the  commander  of  the  Papal  fleet,  Marcantonio 
Colonna.  The  Venetian  captain,  Sebastian  Venier,  was 
not  present,  and  there  was  not  the  least  personal  note 
in  the  rejoicings ;  that,  indeed,  would  have  been  very 
contrary  to  the  usual  behaviour  of  the  Republic  towards 
her  own  sons,  for  if  they  failed  she  disowned  them  or 
put  them  to  death,  and  if  they  succeeded  it  was  her 
motherly  practice  to  disgrace  them  as  soon  as  possible, 
and  generally  to  find  an  excuse  for  imprisoning  them, 
lest  they  should  grow  dangerous  to  herself. 

We  cannot  help   reproaching  her  for  that;    yet  out 


174 


GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 


VII 


of  her   magnificent   past   comes   back   ever  that   same 
answer:   she  succeeded,  where  others  failed.     She  bred 


DOOR    OF   THE   CAkMlNE 


such  men  as  Enrico  Dandolo,  Vittor  Pisani,  Carlo 
Zeno,  and  Sebastian  Venier,  yet  she  was  never  enslaved 
by  one  of  her  own  children.     Rome  served  her  Caesar, 


vii  THE  TRIUMPHANT  CITY  175 

and  her  many  Caesars;  France,  her  Bonaparte;  Russia, 
her  Ivan  Strashny,  the  Terrible;  Spain,  her  Philip  II.; 
England,  her  Richard  III.  —  and  her  Cromwell,  Pro- 
tector and  Tyrant.  But  Venice  was  never  subject  to 
any  one  Venetian  man  beyond  the  time  needed  to 
compass  his  destruction  and  death,  which  was  never 
long,  and  sometimes  was  awfully  brief. 

Venier  did  not  return  to  Venice  till   long  after  the 

o 

battle  of  Lepanto,  and  his  presence  was  necessary  in 
the  Archipelago  in  order  to  protect  such  Venier  returns 
colonies  as  were  left  to  the  Republic.  j^SL; 
For  though  the  Turks  had  suffered  a  SaiadeiPregadi. 
disastrous  defeat,  final  in  the  sense  that  their  advance 
westwards  was  checked  as  effectually  as  the  spreading 
of  the  Moorish  conquest  had  been  by  Charles  Martel 
at  Poitiers,  yet  they  were  still  at  the  height  of  their 
power  in  Constantinople,  and  were  strong  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  dividing  line  which  was  now  drawn  across 
the  Mediterranean,  and  which  marked  the  eastern  limit 
of  Christian  domination.  When  Venier  returned,  the 
Turks  were  absolute  masters  of  the  island  of  Cyprus, 
and  Venice  was  already  beginning  to  pay  what  was 
really  a  war  indemnity,  destined  to  reach  the  formidable 
sum  of  three  hundred  thousand  ducats.  As  Montes- 
quieu truly  says,  it  looked  as  if  the  Turks  had  been 
the  victors  at  Lepanto. 

Three    years    after    that    battle    Venice    was    again 
adorned  in  her  best  to  greet  Henry  III.  of 

F,  ••11  •         •        t     1  Rom.  vi.  jjf. 

ranee,  who  visited  the  city  in    July  1574, 

the  year  of  his  accession.     The  King  was  to  make  his 


176  GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  vn 

entry  on  the  eighteenth,  and  he  was  requested  to  stop 
Horatio  Brown,  at  Murano  on  the  previous  evening,  in  the 
Venetian  studies.  palazzo  Cappello,  which  was  all  hung 
with  silk  and  cloth  of  gold  in  his  honour.  Forty  young 
nobles  were  attached  to  his  person  and  sixty  halberdiers 
mounted  guard,  dressed  in  yellow  and  blue,  which  were 
regarded  by  the  Venetians  as  his  colours,  and  wearing  a 

Hemy  in.  caP  wifn  a  white  tuft  for  a  cockade.  Their 
visits  Venice,     weapons    were    taken    from    the    armoury 

Saiadeiu  of  the  Council  of  I  en.  There  were  also 
eighteen  trumpeters  and  twelve  drummers 
dressed   in  the  King's  colours. 

Henry  III.  was  still  in  mourning  for  his  brother 
Charles  IX.,  and  appeared  very  plainly  clad  in  the  midst 
of  all  this  display.  The  chronicles  have  preserved  the 
details  of  his  costume;  he  wore  a  brown  mantle  that 
fell  from  his  neck  to  his  feet,  and  beneath  it  a  violet 
tunic  of  Flemish  cloth  with  a  white  lace  collar.  He 
also  wore  long  leathern  boots,  perfumed  gloves,  and 
an  Italian  hat. 

The  night  was  passed  in  feasting,  during  which  the 
French  and  the  Venetians  fraternised  most  closely,  and 
on  the  following  morning  a  huge  galley  was  ready  to 
take  the  King  to  Venice  by  way  of  the  Lido. 

On  the  high  poop-deck  a  seat  was  placed  for  the 
King,  covered  with  cloth  of  gold;  on  his  right  sat  the 
Papal  Nuncio,  who  was  the  Cardinal  San  Sisto,  then 
came  the  Dukes  of  Nevers  and  Mantua;  on  his  left  the 
Doge  and  the  Ambassadors.  Four  hundred  rowers 
pulled  the  big  vessel  over,  and  fourteen  galleys  followed 


VII 


THE  TRIUMPHANT  CITY 


*77 


bringing  the  Senators  and  many  others.     To  amuse  the 
King  during   the   short   passage,  the   glass-blowers   of 


K  THE   CAK.MINE 


Murano  had  constructed  on  rafts  a  furnace  in  the  shape 
of  a  marine  monster  that  belched  flames  from  its  jaws 
and    nostrils,   while   the    most   famous   workmen    blew 


VOL.    II.  —  N 


178         GLEANINGS   FROM  HISTORY  vn 

beakers  and  other  vessels  in  the  beast's  body,  of  the 
finest  crystal  glass,  for  the  King  and  his  suite. 

Just  when  he  might  be  thought  to  be  weary  of  this 
spectacle  a  long  array  of  decorated  boats  began  to 
manoeuvre  before  his  eyes,  with  sails  set  and  banners 
flying.  These  belonged  to  the  various  guilds  and  were 
wonderfully  adorned.  One  represented  a  huge  dolphin ; 
on  its  back  stood  Neptune  driving  two  winged  steeds, 
while  four  aged  boatmen  in  costume  stood  for  the  four 
rivers  of  the  Republic,  Brenta,  Adige,  Po,  and  Piave. 
Some  of  the  boats  had  arrangements  for  sending  up 
fireworks,  others  were  floating  exhibitions  of  the  richest 
and  most  marvellous  tapestries  and  stuffs. 

The  royal  vessel,  instead  of  proceeding  straight  to 
Venice,  went  round  by  the  Lido  to  the  landing  of  Saint 
Nicholas,  where  the  State  architect  Palladio  had  erected 
a  triumphal  arch  which  Tintoretto  and  Paolo  Veronese 
had  covered  with  ten  beautiful  paintings.  Here  the 
King  was  invited  to  leave  his  galley  in  order  to  go  on 
board  the  Bucentaur.  Tintoretto  was  in  the  crowd, 
looking  out  for  a  chance  of  sketching  the  King,  pre- 
cisely as  a  modern  reporter  hangs  about  the  docks  and 
railway  stations  to  get  a  snapshot  at  royalty.  1  in- 
toretto  did  not  disdain  the  methods  of  a  later  time 
either;  he  succeeded  in  exchanging  his  threadbare 
cloak  for  the  livery  of  one  of  the  Doge's  squires  or 
footmen,  by  which  trick  he  managed  to  get  on  board 
the  Bucentaur.  Once  there  he  made  a  sketch  in  pastels 
of  the  King  which  pleased  the  royal  treasurer,  De 
Bellegarde,  and  the  latter  persuaded  his  master  to  sit  to 


vii  THE  TRIUMPHANT  CITY 


'79 


the  artist  for  a  full-length  portiait,  which  was  presented 
to  the  Doge  on  the  King's  departure,  in  recollection  of 
the  visit. 

During  the  following  days  nothing  was  omitted 
which  might  amuse  the  Sovereign  or  tend  to  strengthen 
the  pleasant  impression  he  had  already  received.  Every 
sort  of  Venetian  game  was  played,  and  all  the  traditional 
contests  of  strength  and  skill  between  Niccolotti  and 
Castellani  were  revived,  and  with  such  earnestness  on 
both  sides  as  to  lead  to  a  fresh  outbreak  of  their 
hereditary  hate.  Two  hundred  men  fought  with  sticks 
at  the  Ponte  del  Carmine,  as  savagely  as  if  the  safety 
and  honour  of  their  wives  and  children  depended  on 
the  result.  At  the  most  critical  moment  the  fisherman 
Luca,  the  famous  chief  of  the  Niccolotti,  fell  into  the 
canal,  his  followers  were  momentarily  thrown  into  dis- 
order by  the  accident,  and  the  Castellani  won  the  day. 

Afterwards  a  banquet  was  given  to  the  King,  of 
which  the  remembrance  remains  alive  amongst  the 
people  to  our  own  time.  The  gondoliers  and  fishermen 
of  to-day  describe  the  feast,  its  magnificence,  the  beauty 
of  the  patrician  ladies,  the  splendour  of  the  service,  as 
if  they  were  speaking  of  something  that  happened 
yesterday  instead  of  more  than  ten  generations  ago. 

The  tables  were  set  in  the  hall  of  the  Great  Council 
for  three  thousand  persons.  The  King  sat  in  the 
middle  of  the  hall  under  a  golden  canopy.  We  are 
told  that  the  bill  of  fare  set  forth  twelve  hundred 
different  dishes,  and  that  all  the  company  ate  off  solid 
silver  plates,  of  which  there  were  enough  for  all  without 


180  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vn 

having  recourse  to  the  reserve  which  had  been  set  up 
for  show  on  a  huge  sideboard  at  the  end  of  the  hall. 
After  the  feast,  the  King  assisted  at  the  performance  of 
the  first  opera  ever  given  in  Italy,  composed  by  the 
once  famous   master  Zarlino  da  Chioggia. 

The  banquet  and  the  music  must  have  occupied 
several  hours;  yet  we  are  amazed  to  learn  that  so  short 
a  time  sufficed  for  putting  together  a  whole  galley,  of 
which  Henry  had  seen  the  pieces,  all  taken  apart,  just 
before  sitting  down  to  table.  When  he  left  the  ducal 
palace,  he  saw  to  his  stupefaction  the  vessel  launched 
into  the  canal  on  rollers,  and  towed  away  towards  the 
Lido. 

Not  surfeited  by  the  official  amusements  offered  him 
by  the  Republic,  the  King  diverted  himself  on  his  own 
account  and  went  about  the  city  in  disguise, 
like  Otho  of  old.  The  government  had 
directed  the  jewellers  and  merchants  to  have  in  readi- 
ness their  finest  wares  in  order  that  when  the  King 
sent  for  them,  he  might  buy  objects  worthy  of  the 
reputation  of  the  Venetian  shops;  and  the  shopkeepers 
inquired  with  feverish  anxiety  when  they  were  to  go  to 
the  Palazzo  Foscari. 

But  Henry  preferred  to  go  out  shopping  himself. 
One  morning  the  jeweller  at  the  Sign  of  the  Old 
Woman  on  the  Rialto  Bridge  was  visited  by  a  noble 
stranger,  who  inquired  the  price  of  a  marvellously 
chiselled  golden  sceptre:  apparently  the  Venetian 
jewellers  kept  sceptres  in  stock  in  case  a  king  should 
look  in.     The  price  of  this  one  was  twenty-six  thousand 


VII 


THE  TRIUMPHANT  CITY 


181 


ducats,  or  between  eighteen  and  nineteen  thousand 
pounds,  which  seems  dear,  even  for  a  sceptre.  But  the 
noble  stranger  was  not  at  all  surprised,  thought  the 
matter  over  for  a  few  seconds,  nodded  quietly,  and 
ordered  the  thing  to  be  sent  to  the  Foscari  palace,  to 


CAMPO   BEHIND    S.    GIACOMO    IN    ORIO 


the   inexpressible   joy   of  the  jeweller,   who   knew  the 
address  well  enough. 

At  that  time  there  dwelt  in  Venice  a  branch  of  the 
famous  Fugger  family  of  Augsburg,  the  richest  bankers 
of  the  sixteenth  century.     They  owned  all      Mtaineiu, 
the  district  of  the  city  round  the  church       Annaii. 
of  San  Giacomo,  and  had  even  protected  themselves  by 


182         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vn 

a  sort  of  wall.  There  they  had  built  a  bank,  a  hospital, 
and  houses  for  their  numberless  retainers,  and  they 
lived  in  a  kind  of  unacknowledged  principality  of  their 
own  which  was  respected  both  by  the  State  and  the 
people. 

The  family  had  the  most  magnificent  traditions  of 
hospitality.  When  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  passed 
through  Augsburg  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  same  century, 
he  lodged  in  the  Fuggers'  house,  and  as  it  was  winter, 
his  hosts  caused  his  fires  to  be  made  only  of  aromatic 
wood  imported  as  a  perfume  from  Ceylon.  Henry  III. 
visited  the  Fuggers  in  Venice,  and  they  were  neither 
surprised  by  his  unannounced  visit  nor  unprepared  t<; 
receive  a  royal  guest. 

While  in  Venice  the  King  spent  much  of  his  time 
with  Veronica  Franco,  the  celebrated  poetess  and 
courtesan.  She,  on  her  side,  fell  deeply  in 
love  with  the  man  who  was  to  be  the  worst 
of  all  the  French  kings.  But  he  was  only  twenty-three 
years  old  then,  he  was  half  a  Medici  by  blood,  and  all  of 
one  by  his  passionate  nature.  Veronica  loved  him  with 
all  her  heart,  and  amidst  all  the  evil  he  did  there  was  at 
least  one  good  result,  for  when  he  was  gone  she  would 
not  be  consoled,  nor  would  she  ever  look  on  another 
man,  but  mended  her  life  and  lived  in  a  retirement  to 
which  she  sought  to  attract  other  penitent  women. 

She  had  a  picture  of  the  King  painted,  and  no  doubt 
he  was  vividly  present  in  her  thoughts  when  she  wrote 
the  following  sonnet,  which  is  attributed  to  her,  and 
which  I  do  into  prose  for  greater  accuracy :  — 


vii  THE  TRIUMPHANT  CITY  183 

Begone,  deceiving  thoughts  and  empty  hope, 
Greedy  and  blind  desires,  and  bitter  cravings, 
Begone,  ye  burning  sighs  and  bitter  woes, 
Companions  ever  of  my  unending  pain. 

Go  memories  sweet,  go  galling  chains,  % 

Of  a  heart  that  is  loosed  from  you  at  last, 

That  gathers  up  again  the  rein  of  reason, 

Dropped  for  a  while,  and  now  goes  forth  in  freedom. 

And  thou,  mv  soul,  entangled  in  so  many  sorrows, 
Unbind  thyself  and  to  thy  divine  Lord 
Rejoicing  turn  thy  thoughts  ; 

Now  bravely  force  thy  fate, 

Break  through  thy  bonds  ;   then,  glad  and  free, 

Direct  thy  steps  in  the  securer  way  ! 

In  order  to  gi-ve  my  readers  some  idea  of  what  was 
done  to  furnish  the  Palazzo  Foscari  for  Henry's  visit,  I 
quote  some  items  of  the  expenditure  from  the  Souvenirs 
of  Armand  Baschet:  — 

'Crimson  silk  and  gold  hangings,  fifty-eight  pieces 
making  three  hundred  and  seven  braccia  and  a  half  at  a 
ducat  for  each  braccio  and  twelve  inches.  White  silk 
and  silver  stuff;  shot-silk  and  silver  stuff;  white  satin 
with  gold  lines,  etc.  Cushions  of  brocade  embroidered 
with  gold  and  of  blue  velvet  with  gold  and  fringes  etc. 
at  forty  ducats  each.  A  bed  quilt  with  gold  lines  and 
scarlet  checks,  twenty  ducats.  Yellow  damask  with 
little  checks  at  one  ducat  the  braccio.  A  rep  rug  of 
gold  edged  with  blue  velvet  and  lined  with  red  silk, 
sixty  ducats.  A  tablecloth  of  silver  and  gold  brocade 
with  white  and  gold  fringe,  thirty-four  ducats.     Green 


i8+  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vn 

and  blue  velvet  for  the  floor,  at  one  ducat  the  braccio. 
Complete  hangings  for  a  room  of  yellow  satin  with  gold 
and  silver  fringe  and  gold  lace,  over  seven  hundred  and 
thirtv  ducats.' 

Further,  we  find  for  the  royal  gondolas  the  following 
items  :  — 

'Felse  of  scarlet  satin,  one  hundred  and  fifty-six 
ducats.  A  boat's  carpet  of  violet  Alexandria  velvet;  a 
felse  of  the  same  velvet  lined  with  silk,  fifty-five  ducats. 
Another  velvet  carpet  of  the  same  colour,  two  canopies, 
one  of  violet  satin  fringed  and  embroidered  with  gold, 
the  other  of  white  satin,  and  two  cushions  of  scarlet 
satin   and   gold.' 

These  things  were  put  away  in  boxes,  an  inventory 
was  taken,  and  they  were  valued  at  four  thousand 
two  hundred  sequins,  or  more  than  three  thousand 
pounds.  The  King  on  his  side  was  generous.  When 
he  went  away  he  presented  each  of  the  young  noble- 
men who  had  attended  him  with  a  chain  worth  a 
hundred  ducats,  and  gave  a  collar  worth  three  hundred 
to  his  host,  Foscari.  The  captain  of  his  guard  received 
a  silver  basin  and  ewer  worth  a  hundred  crowns.  For 
the  halberdiers  of  the  guard  there  were  three  hundred 
crowns,  eighty  for  the  trumpeters  and  sixty  for  the 
drummers.  His  Majesty  left  a  thousand  crowns  for 
the  workmen  of  the  Arsenal,  two  hundred  for  the  rowers 
of  the  Bucentaur,  one  hundred  for  the  major-domo,  and 
fifty  to  the  chief  steward  of  the  house. 

The  Duke  of  Savoy,  who  accompanied  the  King  of 
France,  also  left  some  splendid  presents.     To  the  wife 


i*5 


1 86  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vn 

of  Luigi  Mocenigo,  in  whose  house  he  had  been 
staying,  he  gave  a  belt  composed  of  thirty  gold 
rosettes,  ornamented  with  Hue  pearls  and  valuable 
precious  stones.  The  Duke  was  doubtless  unaware 
that  as  soon,  as  he  was  gone  the  handsome  ornament 
would  have  to  be  handed  over  to  the  Provveditori 
delle  Pompe,  not  to  be  worn  again  unless  a  special 
and  elaborate  decree  could  be  obtained  for  the 
purpose. 

In   the   first  year  of  the   reign   of  Sixtus  V.    Japan 
sent  ambassadors  to  the  Pope  'to  recognise  him  offi- 
l585i  dally  as  Christ's  vicar  on  earth.'     These 

Rom.v1.j87.  personages,  who  were  converts  to  Chris- 
tianity, were  received  with  demonstrations  of  the 
greatest  joy  and  esteem  when  they  visited  Venice,  and 
were  regaled  with  spectacles  which  were  partly  religious 
in  character  and  partly  secular.  A  procession  was 
organised  against  which  the  Pope  himself  protested  in 
the  most  formal  manner;  but  the  Republic  paid  no 
more  attention  than  usual  to  this  expression  of  papal 
displeasure.  It  was  always  the  dream  of  Venice  to  be 
Roman   Catholic  without   Rome. 

The  Japanese  envoys  looked  on  while  all  the  clergy 

of  the  city  passed  in  review  before  them,  as  well  as  all 

„.   „     n    .      the    guilds    bearing    the    images    of   their 

Giustina  Renter  o  00 

Michiel,        patron   saints   and   their  standards;    these 

Origin  1.  r   11  J    u 

were  followed  by  cars  carrying  enormous 
erections  of  gold  and  silver  vessels,  built  up  in  the 
form  of  pyramids,  and  of  columns,  stars,  eagles,  lions, 
and  symbolic  beasts.     Other  cars  came  after  these  with 


VII 


THE  TRIUMPHANT  CITY 


187 


platforms,   on    which    actors    represented    scenes    from 
the  lives  of  saints,   even   including   martyrdom.     The 


PIGEONS    IN    THE    PIAZZA 


Japanese  may  have  been  more  amazed  than  edified  by 
these  performances. 

The  Venetians  always  loved  processions,  and  it  is  to 


188  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vn 

one  of  these  pageants  that  the  pigeons  of  Saint  Mark's 
owe  their  immunity.  As  early  as  the  end  of  the  four- 
teenth century  it  was  the  custom  to  make  a  great  pro- 
cession on  Palm  Sunday,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Saint 
Mark's.  A  canon  of  the  Cathedral  deposited  great 
baskets  on  the  high  altar,  containing  the  artificial  palms 
prepared  for  the  Doge,  the  chief  magistrates,  and  the 
most  important  members  of  the  clergy.  The  Doge's 
palm  was  prepared  by  the  nuns  of  Sant'  Andrea,  and 
was  a  monument  of  patience.  The  leaves  were  plaited 
with  threads  of  palm,  of  gold,  of  silver,  and  of  silk; 
and  on  the  gilded  handle  were  painted  the  arms  of  the 
Doge.  According  to  the  appointed  service  the  proces- 
sion began  immediately  after  the  distribution  of  the 
palms;  and  while  the  choir  chanted  the  words  'Gloria, 
laus  et  honor'  of  the  sacred  hymn,  a  great  number  of 
pigeons  were  sent  flying  from  different  parts  of  the 
facade  down  into  the  square,  having  little  screws  of  paper 
fastened  to  their  claws  to  prevent  them  from  flying  too 
high.  The  people  instantly  began  to  catch  the  birds, 
and  a  great  many  were  actually  taken;  but  now  and 
then,  one  stronger  than  the  rest  succeeded  in  gaining 
the  higher  parts  of  the  surrounding  buildings,  enthusi- 
astically cheered  by  the  crowd.  Those  who  had  once 
succeeded  in  making  their  escape  were  regarded  as  sacred 
for  ever  with  all  their  descendants.  The  State  provided 
them  with  food  from  its  granaries,  and  before  long,  lest 
by  some  mistake  any  free  pigeons  should  be  caught 
on  the  next  Palm  Sunday,  the  Signory  decreed  that 
other  birds  than  pigeons  must  be  used  on  the  occasion. 


*2JH 


VIII 


THE   HOSE   CLUB  — VENETIAN  LEGENDS 


In  the  fourteenth  century,  life  in  Venice  was  simple 
and   vigorous,    and    found    its   civic   expression    in   the 
formation  of  the  Guilds  which   united   in      Moimenti, 
close  and  brotherly  bonds  men  of  grave  and    Vlta  Pnrafa- 

J  <p  Sansovitio. 

energetic  character,  devoted  to  their  country     GaWctioii, 
and  to  its  advantage.     In  the  fifteenth  and     %%MuHnem 
sixteenth   centuries   the   tendencies   of  the       Lessuo. 
later  Venetians  took  visible  shape  in  brotherhoods  of 
joyous  and  not  harmless  amusement,  and  chiefly  in  that 


190  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         viii 

known  as  the  'Compagnia  della  Calza,'  in  plain  English 
the  'Hose  Club.' 

The  learned  Professor  Tomassetti  of  the  University 
of  Rome,  whose  authority  in  all  that  concerns  the 
Middle  Ages  in  Italy  is  indisputable,  informs  me  that 
he  believes  the  Tight  of  wearing  hose  of  two  or  more 
colours,  as  one  leg  white  and  one  leg  red,  or  quartered 
above  and  below  the  knee,  belonged  exclusively  to  free 
men,  and  that  the  fashion  was  adopted  by  them  in 
order  that  they  might  be  readily  distinguished  from 
the  serf-born,  in  crowds  and  in  public  places.  This  is, 
indeed,  the  only  reasonable  explanation  of  the  practice 
which  has  ever  been  offered,  and  is  borne  out  by  a 
careful  examination  of  the  pictures  of  the  time.  The 
'Hose  Club'  distinguished  themselves  and  recognised 
one  another  by  their  hose,  which  were  of  two  colours, 
one  leg  having  at  first  a  peacock  embroidered  on  it, 
whence  the  whole  company  was  sometimes  nicknamed 
'The   Peacocks.' 

The  Doge  Michel  Steno,  who  painted  his  four 
hundred  horses  yellow,  and  had  been  concerned  in  the 
libel  against  the  nephew  of  Marin  Faliero, 
had  been  counted  among  the  gayest  youths 
of  his  day ;  and  when  he  was  elected  the  rich  young  men 
of  Venice,  knowing  by  hearsay  from  their  fathers  that 
he  had  been  wild  in  his  youth,  determined  to  celebrate 
the  accession  of  a  former  dandy  in  a  manner  suited 
to  their  own  tastes.  They  agreed  upon  the  dress 
which  afterwards  became  famous,  and  each  paid  a 
sum    of   two    thousand    ducats    into    a    general    fund 


viii  THE  HOSE  CLUB  191 

which  was  entirely  spent  in  pageantry,  banqueting,  and 
masquerades. 

They  had  not  at  first  intended  the  Club  to  be 
permanent,  but  when  the  anniversary  of  the  Doge's 
coronation  came  round  in  the  following  year,  they  met 
again  to  consider  the  advisability  ot  prolonging  an 
institution  which  made  such  an  agreeable  contrast  to 
the  general  gravity  of  Venetian  life. 

They  now  composed  a  sort  of  charter  or  constitution, 
which    would    have    made    the    heads    of    the    artisan 
Guilds  tremble  with  indignation,  and  might 
well  have  caused  the  fathers  of  Venetian 
families  to  look  even   more  grave  than   usual. 

The  Club  was  to  be  always  a  Company  of  twenty 
members,  chosen  for  four  years  only;  for  as  soon  as  a 
young  Venetian  married,  or  took  his  seat  in  the  Great 
Council,  he  put  on  the  long  gown  of  older  years  and 
more  dignified  habits,  which  effectively  eclipsed  his 
brilliant  legs  from  the  public  gaze.  Each  Company 
was  to  choose  its  name,  an  emblem,  and  a  motto. 
There  were  to  be  officers,  a  president,  a  secretary,  and 
a  treasurer;  and  as  the  Venetians  had  a  mania  for 
sanctioning  even  the  most  frivolous  doings  by  means 
of  some  religious  exercise,  each  Company  was  to  have 
a  chaplain  to  celebrate  a  solemn  mass  at  the  admission 
of  each  young  scapegrace  who  joined.  The  chaplain 
also  administered  the  oath  which  every  Companion  was 
bound  to  take  on  admission. 

The  smallest  infraction  of  the  rules  entailed  a  heavy 
fine,  and  the  fines  were,  of  course,  periodically  spent 


192         GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY         vm 

in  riotous  amusements.  As  for  the  dress,  the  hose 
always  remained  a  part  of  it,  but  the  greatest  latitude 
was  allowed  in  the  matter  of  colour  and  embroidery, 
or  other   ornamentation. 

The  formation  of  the  joyous  Companies  was  a  natural 
reaction  after  the  huge  efforts,  the  strenuous  labours, 
the  awful  dangers  that  had  filled  the  fourteenth  century, 
and  had  placed  Venice  high  among  the  European 
powers.  From  the  foundation  of  the  first  of  the 
Company,  that  of  the  'Peacocks,'  to  the  dispersion  of 
the  ' Accesi,'  the  'Ardent,'  which  was  the  last,  a  hundred 
and  eighty-six  years  went  by,  which  may  be  called  six 
generations,  during  which  forty-three  Companies  suc- 
ceeded each  other,  and  the  'Hose  Club'  became  famous 
throughout  Europe  for  its  extravagance,  and  for  the 
fertility  of  its   festive  inventions. 

It  made  it  its  especial  business  to  adorn  with  its 
presence  in  a  body  the  public  baptisms  of  noble  children, 
and  important  weddings,  the  visits  of  illustrious  person- 
ages, and  even  elections  where  there  was  much  at  stake. 
When  a  foreign  sovereign  stopped  in  Venice,  he  asked 
to  be  made  an  honorary  member  of  the  Company,  he 
sometimes  adopted  its  dress,  and  he  took  home  with 
him   its  emblem   and   its   motto. 

The  most  famous  of  all  the  Companies  was  that  of 

the  'Reali,'  the  'Royals,'  which  was  in  existence  about 

ckogna,       the  year  1530.     The  members  wore  a  red 

her.  in. 366.  stocking  on  tne  right  leg,  and  a  blue  one 
on  the  left,  which  was  embroidered  on  one  side  with 
large   flowers   of  violet   colour,   and   on   the   other  the 


VIII 


THE  HOSE  CLUB 


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emblem  of  the  Company,  which  was  a  cypress,  over 
which  ran  the  motto,  'May  our  glorious  name  go  up 


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FONTE   S.    ANTONIO 


to  heaven.'  The  members  wore  a  vest  of  velvet  em- 
broidered with  gold  and  fine  pearls,  and  the  sleeves 
were  fastened  on  by  knots  of  ribband  of  different  colours, 

VOL.   II.  — O 


194         GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY         viu 

a  fashion  permitting  the  wearer  to  display  his  shirt  of 
gossamer   linen,   exquisitely   embroidered. 

A  leathern  or  a  gilded  girdle  was  worn  too,  orna- 
mented with  precious  stones,  and  over  the  shoulder 
was  carelessly  thrown  a  short  mantle  of  cloth  of  gold, 
or  damask,  or  brocade,  with  a  hood  thrown  back,  in 
the  lining  of  which  was  seen  again  the  emblematic 
cypress. 

Last  of  all  the  'toga,'  the  great  cloak,  was  red,  and 
was  fastened  at  the  neck  by  a  small  golden  chain,  from 
the  end  of  which  a  handsome  jewel  hung  down  below 
the  ear,  over  one  shoulder.  The  boots  were  of  em- 
broidered or  cut  leather,  and  were  made  with  very 
thin  soles. 

Venice  had  to  thank  the  Companions  of  the  Hose 
Club  for  some  of  the  first  real  theatrical  performances 
ever  given,  which  gradually  led  to  the  creation  of 
the  '  ridotti,'  and  were  more  or  less  aristocratic 
gambling  clubs  in  connection  with  the  theatres.  We 
read  that  in  1529  the  Companions  played  a  comedy 
with  immense  success  in  the  house  of  one  of  the 
Loredan  family.  In  the  following  year  the  Duke  of 
Milan  visited  the  city,  and  the  Club  determined  to  out- 
do all  its  previous  festivities.  A  Giustiniani  was  then 
the  president  of  the  'Royals,'  and  he  appeared  with  a 
deputation  before  the  Doge  and  the  Signory.  After 
announcing  that  the  Club  had  determined  to  produce 
the  spectacle  of  a  naval  combat,  he  requested  the 
government  to  lend  for  the  purpose  forty  of  the  light 
war-pinnaces  from  the  Arsenal.     As  if  this  were  nothing 


VIII 


THE  HOSE   CLUB  195 


unusual,  he  went  on  to  ask  for  the  use  of  the  hall  of 
the  Great  Council  for  a  dance,  of  the  Library  for  a 
supper,  and  of  the  Square  of  Saint  Mark's  for  a 
stag-hunt. 

The  Hose  Club  evidently  had  large  ideas.  The 
Doge,  however,  granted  all  that  was  necessary  for  the 
naval  show,  but  said  that  he  should  have  to  think  over 
the  other  requests  ! 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  ladies  of  Venice  had 
their  share  in  the  gay  doings  of  the  Club,  first  as 
invited  guests  only,  but  later  as  honorary  Companions, 
wearing  the  emblem  embroidered  on  their  sleeves  and 
on  the  scarlet  'felse'  of  their  gondolas,  until  the 
sumptuary  laws  interfered. 

There  were  times  when  the  Signors  of  the  Night 
and  the  Council  of  Ten  thought  fit  to  limit  the  Club's 
excessive  gaiety,  and  it  was  found  necessary  to  issue 
a  decree  which  strictly  prohibited  any  of  the  eleven 
thousand  light  ladies  of  the  city  from  being  received 
as  Companions,  or  asked  to  its  entertainments;  for, 
oddly  enough,  the  reputables  do  not  seem  to  have 
resented  the  presence  of  the  disreputables  in  the 
sixteenth  century. 

Now  and  then  the  Companions  fell  out  among 
themselves.  Marin  Sanudo,  in  his  diary,  mentions 
that  in  February  1500  the  Companions  Marin  Sanudo, 
dined  in  the  house  of  Luca  Gritti,  son  of  Ui-*>39- 
the  late  Omobono;  and  after  dinner  Zuan  Moro,  the 
treasurer  of  the  Club,  went  out  with  Angelo  Morosini, 
Andrea    Vendramin,    and    Zacaria    Priuli;     and    they 


196         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vm 

quarrelled  about  a  matter  concerning  which  I  refer 
my  scholarly  reader  to  his  Muratori,  and  Zuan  Moro 
was  wounded  in  the  face,  and  turned  and  gave  his 
assailants  as  good  as  he  had  got,  to  the  infinite  scandal 
of  the  whole  city,  for  these  Companions  were  all  the 
young  husbands  of  beautiful  women,  and  they  dis- 
figured each  other! 

We  learn  also  from  Sanudo  that  the  Companions 
frequented  the  parlours  of  nunneries  as  well  as  the 
palaces  of  their  noble  relations  and  friends,  and  that 
in  15 14,  for  instance,  they  played  a  comedy  by  Plautus 
in  the  convent  of  Santo  Stefano.  The  Company  of 
the  'Sempiterni,'  the  'Eternals,'  wished  to  give  a  per- 
formance of  Pietro  Aretino's  'Talanta'  in  one  of  the 
monasteries,  but  this  was  more  than  the  monks  could 
endure,  which  will  not  surprise  any  one  who  has  read 
Aretino's  works ;  they  might  as  well  have  proposed 
to  give  one  of  Giordano  Bruno's  obscene  comedies; 
and  perhaps  they  would,  if  he  had  then  already  lived 
and  written.  Refused  by  the  monks,  the  Companions 
hired  a  part  of  an  unfinished  palace  on  the  Canarregio 
for  their  performance. 

At  first  sight,  what  surprises  us  is  the  impunity 
enjoyed  by  these  young  gentlemen  of  pleasure,  and  we 
ask  what  the  three  'Wise  Men  on  Blasphemy'  were 
doing.  They  were  the  Censors  of  the  Republic,  and 
it  is  amusing  to  note  that  they  acted  in  regard  to 
licensing  plays  precisely  as  the  modern  English  govern- 
ment censorship  does,  for  whereas  they  allowed  a 
scandalous    piece    by    Aretino    to    be    performed    un- 


VIII 


THE   HOSE   CLUB 


T97 


challenged,  they  most  strictly  forbade  the  presentation 
of  any  biblical  personage  or  subject  on  the  stage.  The 
stories  of  Judith,  of  Jephthah's  daughter,  and  of  Samson 
were  those  of  which  the  wise  magistrates  most  particu- 
larly disapproved,  I  know  not  why. 

The  first  theatre  Venice  had  was  built  bv  the  Com- 


S.    ZOBEN1GO 


panions  in  1560  after  the  designs  of  Palladio,  of  wood, 
in  the  court  of  the  monastery  of  the  Carita,  but  after  a 
few  years  it  took  fire,  and  the  monastery  itself  was 
destroyed   with   it. 

I  find  that  the  Companions  were  great  'racket' 
players;  but  I  apprehend  that  by  'rackets'  the 
chroniclers   intended   to    describe   court   tennis,    which 


198         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vm 

was  played  in  Venice,  whereas  in  most  other  Italian 
cities  the  game  of  'Pallone'  was  the  favourite,  and 
has  survived  to  our  own  time.  It  is  played  with  a 
heavy  ball  which  the  player  strikes  with  a  sort  of 
wooden  glove,  studded  with  blunt  wooden  pins  and 
covering  most  of  the  forearm. 

To  return  to  the  question  of  the  large  freedom  and 
impunity  granted  to  the  Club  by  the  government,  the 
reason  of  such  license  is  not  far  to  seek.  Young  men 
who  spend  their  time  in  a  ceaseless  round  of  amuse- 
ment do  not  plot  to  overthrow  the  government  that 
tolerates  them.  The  Signory,  on  the  whole,  protected 
the  Companions  even  in  their  wildest  excesses,  and  no 
doubt  believed  them  to  be  much  more  useful  members 
of  society  than  they  thought  themselves,  since  their 
irrepressible  gaiety  and  almost  constant  popularity 
helped  to  keep  the  people  in  a  good  humour  in  times 
of  trouble  and  disturbance. 

At  the  time  of  the  league  of  Cambrai,  for  instance, 
when  Pope  Julius  II.,  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  Louis 
XII.  of  France,  and  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  agreed  to 
destroy  the  Venetian  Republic,  and  when  it  looked  as 
if  they  must  succeed,  the  Company  of  the  'Eternals' 
produced  a  mummery  which  was  highly  appreciated 
both  by  the  government  and  the  population. 

They  gave  a  sumptuous  feast,  after  which  the 
dining-hall  was,  as  by  magic,  turned  into  an  impro- 
ve vised  theatre.  In  the  middle  of  the  stage 
Rom.  v.  2/6.  sat  a  yOLirig  noble  who  personated  the 
King,    splendidly    arrayed    in    the    Byzantine    fashion, 


vin  THE   HOSE  CLUB  199 

and  attended  by  his  counsellors,  his  chancellor,  and 
his  interpreter.  Before  him  there  came  in  state  one 
who  played  the  Papal  Legate,  dressed  as  a  bishop 
in  silk  of  old-rose  colour,  and  he  presented  a  brief 
and  his  credentials;  whereupon,  after  crowning  and 
blessing  the  King,  he  observed  that  he  should  like  to 
see  a  little  dancing,  and  two  of  the  Companions  at 
once  danced  for  him  with  two  of  the  fairest  ladies. 
The  Legate  was  followed  by  the  Ambassador  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  and  the  Ambassadors  of  France, 
Spain,  Hungary,  and  Turkey  arrived  in  turn;  each 
spoke  in  the  language  of  his  country,  and  his  speech 
was  interpreted  to  the  King.  Last  of  all  came  the 
Ambassador  of  the  Pigmies  mounted  on  a  tiny  pony 
accompanied  by  four  dwarfs  and  the  professional 
buffoon  Zanipolo.  We  must  suppose  the  speeches 
to  have  been  very  witty,  and  the  dwarfs  and  buffoons 
highly  comic,  since  this  incomprehensible  nonsense 
was  a  stupendous  success  and  was  talked  of  long 
afterwards. 

The  taste  for  these  'momarie,'  literally  'mum- 
meries,' grew  in  Venice.  Marin  Sanudo  describes  one 
which  was  produced  in  the  Square  of  Saint  Mark's 
on  the  Thursday  before  Lent  in  1532.  I  translate  a 
part  of  the  list  of  the  masks,  to  give  an  idea  of  the 
whole. 

First,  the  goddess  Pallas  Athene  with  her  shield 
and  a  book  in  her  hand,   riding  on  a  serpent. 

Second,  Justice  riding  on  an  elephant,  with  sword, 
scales,  and  globe. 


200         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  viii 

Third,  Concord,  on  a  stork  with  sceptre  and  globe. 

Fourth,  Victory  on  horseback,  with  sword,  shield, 
sceptre,  and  palm. 

Fifth,  Peace  riding  a  lamb,  and  holding  a  sceptre 
with    an    olive   branch. 

And  so  on.  Then  Ignorance,  riding  an  ass,  and 
holding  on  by  the  tail,  met  Wisdom  and  fought  and 
was  beaten.  And  Violence  appeared  on  a  serpent,  and 
Mars  on  a  horse,  and  Want  on  a  dog  with  a  horn  full 
of  straw  for  its  emblem.  And  Violence  was  soundly 
beaten  by  Justice,  Discord  by  Concord,  and  Mars  by 
Victory,  and  Abundance  drove  Want  from  the  field. 

Such  were  the  shows  that  amused  the  Venetians, 
while  written  comedy  was  slowly  growing  out  of 
infancy. 

The  Companions  of  the  Hose  Club  revenged  them- 
selves cruelly  on  any  one  of  their  own  number  who 
„.    .  .      ,       showed  signs  of  meanness.     Sanudo  tells 

Tassmi,  under  __  °- 

Osteria  deiia     the    following     anecdote.      Alvise     Moro- 

Campana.  •  r      1         <  t^  i      >  i 

smi,  one  of  the  hternals,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  his  marriage  with  a  daughter  of  the  noble 
house  of  Grimani,  gave  his  fellow-Companions  a  very 
meagre  dinner.  Not  long  afterwards  they  got  into 
the  Grimani  palace  and  carried  off  two  magnificent 
silver  basins;  these  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  pro- 
fessional buffoons  who  paraded  the  city  with  them, 
informing  the  public  that  the  bridegroom  meant  to 
pawn  them  to  pay  for  the  dinner  which  the  Com- 
panions were  going  to  eat  at  the  sign  of  the  Campana 
instead  of  the  dinner  which  they  should  have  eaten  at 


VIII 


THE   HOSE  CLUB  201 


the  Palazzo  Morosini,  and  also  to  pay  for  wax  torches 
for  taking  home  the  fair  ladies  who  were  to  be  asked 
to  the  feast. 

The  paternal  and  business-like  government  of 
Venice,  seeing  how  much  the  Companions  contributed 
to  the  national  gaiety,  allowed  them  to  transgress  the 
sumptuary  laws  which  were  so  binding  on  every  one 
else.  For  instance,  ordinary  mortals  were  forbidden 
to  ask  guests  to  more  than  one  meal  in  the  twenty- 
four  hours,  but  the  Companions  eluded  the  law  —  with 
the  consent  of  the  police  —  by  keeping  an  open  table  all 
night,  so  that  breakfast  appeared  to  be  only  the  end 
of  supper.  Even  in  the  matter  of  the  gondolas, 
the  rule  was  that  the  'felse'  should  be  of  black 
cloth,  yet  the  Companions  covered  theirs  with  scarlet 
silk  and  the  Provveditori  delle  Pompe  had  nothing 
to  say. 

Then,  suddenly,  the  government  had  a  fit  of 
morality,  and  in  1586  the  Hose  Club  was  abolished 
by  law,  all  privileges  were  revoked,  and  the  decree  was 
enforced.  Venice  lost  some  amusement  and  much 
beautiful  pageantry,  and  gained  nothing  in  morality. 
It  was  not  very  long  before  the  grave  senators  who 
objected  to  the  Companions  were  seen  in  their  scarlet 
togas  presiding  over  authorised  gambling  establish- 
ments in  the   'ridotti.' 

The  Venetians  were  an  imaginative  people  who 
delighted  in  fables,  amusing,  terrible,  or  pious,  as  the 
case  might  be.  Their  stories  differ  from  those  of  other 
European  races  in  the  Middle  Ages  by  the  total  absence 


202  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  vm 

of  the  element  of  chivalry  upon  which  most  other 
peoples  largely  depended  for  their  unwritten  fiction. 
One  can  make  almost  anything  of  a  business  man 
except  a  knight. 

Near  the  Ponte  dell'  Angelo  in  the  Giudecca  stands 
a    house    which    shows    great    age    in    spite    of    much 


PONTE  DELL*  ANGELO,  GIUDECCA,  OLD  WOODEN    BRIDGE 

modern  plastering.  The  windows  are  gothic,  of  the 
Tassim, under  ogival  design,  and  on  the  facade  there  is 
'Angelo:  an  imao;e  of  the  Virgin  with  the  infant 
Christ  in  her  arms.  Higher  up,  a  bas-relief  represents 
an  angel  standing  with  outstretched  wings  as  if  he 
were  about  to  fly  away  after  blessing  with  his  right 
hand  the  globe  he  holds  in  his  left. 


vni  VENETIAN   LEGENDS  203 

In  the  year  1552  this  house  was  inhabited  by  a 
barrister  of  the  ducal  court  who  professed  unbounded 
devotion  to  the  Madonna,  and  practised  the  most 
indelicate  methods  of  improving  his  fortunes. 

One  day  the  lawyer  asked  to  dinner  a  holy  Capuchin 
monk  who  enjoyed  the  highest  reputation  for  sanctity. 
Before  sitting  down  to  table  he  explained  to  the  good 
friar  that  he  had  a  most  wonderful  servant  in  the  shape 
of  a  learned  ape,  that  kept  his  house  clean,  cooked  for 
him,  and  did  his  errands.  The  holy  man  at  once 
perceived  that  the  ape  was  no  less  a  personage  than  the 
Devil  in  disguise,  and  asked  to  see  him;  but  Satan, 
suspecting  trouble,  hid  himself  till  at  last  he  was 
found  curled  up  in  his  master's  bed,  trembling  with 
fright. 

'I  command  thee,'  said  the  monk,  'in  the  name  of 
God,  to  say  why  thou  hast  entered  this  house.' 

'I  am  the  Devil,'  answered  the  ape,  seeing  that 
prevarication  would  be  useless,  'and  I  am  here  to  take 
possession  of  this  lawyer's  soul,  which  is  mine  on 
several  good  grounds.' 

The  monk  inquired  why  the  Devil  had  not  flown 
away  with  the  soul  long  ago,  but  the  fiend  replied  that 
so  far  it  had  not  been  possible,  because  the  lawyer 
said  'Hail,  Mary,'  every  night  before  going  to  bed. 
Thereupon  the  Capuchin  bade  the  Devil  leave  the 
house  at  once;  but  the  Devil  said  that  if  he  went  he 
would  do  great  damage  to  the  building,  as  the  heavenly 
powers  had  authorised  him  to  do.  But  the  monk  was 
a  match  for  him. 


20+         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         vm 

'The  only  damage  you  shall  do,'  said  the  friar, 
'shall  be  by  making  a  hole  in  the  wall  as  you  leave, 
which  shall  be  a  witness  of  the  truth  of  what  we  have 
seen  and  heard  and  of  the  story  we  shall  tell.' 

The  Devil  obeyed  with  alacrity  and  disappeared 
through  the  wall  with  a  formidable  crash,  after  which 
the  lawyer  and  his  guest  sat  down  to  table,  and  the 
monk  discoursed  of  leading  a  good  life;  and  at  last  he 
took  the  table-cloth  and  wrung  it  with  both  hands,  and 
a  quantity  of  blood  ran  out  of  it  which  he  said  wras  the 
blood  the  lawyer  had  wrung  from  his  clients.  Then 
the  sinner  began  to  shed  tears  and  promised  to  make 
full  reparation,  and  he  told  the  monk  that  if  the  hole 
in  the  wall  were  not  stopped  up,  he  feared  the  Devil 
would  come  in  by  it  again.  So  the  friar  advised  him 
to  place  a  statue  of  the  Madonna  before  the  hole  and 
an  angel  over  it,  to  scare  the  Devil  away.  And  so 
he  did. 

Another  Venetian  legend  of  slightly  earlier  date  tells 

how  there  was  once  in  the  confraternity  of  Saint  John 

Tassini, under    the  Evangelist  a  man  who  led  a  bad  life, 

'  San  Lio:  to  t]ie  great  scandal  of  all  who  knew  him. 
One  of  the  brethren  having  died,  the  Superior  hoped 
to  touch  the  heart  of  that  wicked  man  by  asking  him 
to  bear  the  Cross  in  the  funeral  procession.  'I  will 
neither  walk  in  the  procession  to-day,'  answered  the 
sinner,  'nor  do  I  wish  to  be  so  accompanied  when  the 
Devil  carries  me  off.'  After  some  time  he  died,  and 
the  brethren  proceeded  to  bury  him,  walking  in  proces- 
sion after  the  Cross;  but  when  they  reached  the  bridge 


viii  VENETIAN  LEGENDS  205 

of  San  Lio  it  became  so  heavy  that  it  was  impossible  to 
lift  it  from  the  ground,  much  less  to  carry  it.  The 
Superior  now  remembered  the  words  of  the  blasphemer, 
and  told  the  story  to  the  brethren  while  Picturerepresent. 
they  halted.     So  they  all  decided  that  the     i»g  the  scene, 

-~,  1-111  •  Man  suet  i  ; 

Cross  must  not  follow  the  procession,  and  Accademia  deiu 
thereupon  it  instantly  became  light  again,      belle  Artl- 
and  was  carried  back  to  the  chapel  of  Saint  John  the 
Evangelist. 

The  fireside  is  the  natural  place  for  telling  stories, 
and  there  is  certainly  some  connection  in  the  human 
mind  between  firelight  and  the  fabulous.  Dante  tells 
that  in  his  time  the  women  of  Venice  consulted  the  fire 
in  order  to  know  the  future.  When  a  girl  was  engaged 
to  be  married  she  appealed  to  one  of  the  burning  logs, 
and  decided  from  the  augury  whether  she  was  to  be 
happy  or  unhappy.  Those  who  wanted  money  struck 
the  log  with  the  tongs,  calling  out  softly,  'Ducats! 
ducats!'  If  the  sparks  flew  out  abundantly  there  was 
some  hope  that  a  rich  relation  might  die  and  leave  the 
inquirer  a  legacy.  When  the  sparks  were  few  and 
faint,  poverty  was  prophesied. 

Unlike  all  other  Italians,  who  believe  that  hunch- 
backs bring  good  luck,  the  Venetians  feared  them 
excessively.  A  Venetian  proverb  says,  'Leave  three 
steps  between  thyself  and  those  whom  God  has  marked, 
eight  if  it  is  a  hunchback,  and  twenty-eight  if  the  man 
be  lame.' 

One  of  the  pretty  superstitions  of  Venetian  mothers 
was  that  if  they  took  their  little  children  out  before 


2o6  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         vm 

dawn  on  Saint  John's  Day,  the  twenty-fourth  of  June,  so 
that  the  morning  dew  might  dampen  their  cheeks  and 
hair,  they  would  have  lovely  complexions  and  golden 
locks.  There  are  old  Venetian  lullabies  that  promise 
babies  the  midsummer  dew. 


1FIA,    NIGHT 


IX 


THE   DECADENCE 


The  seventeenth  century,  like  the  fourteenth,  was  one 
of  transition ;  but  whereas  the  earlier  period  was  one  of 
improvement,  the  latter  was  one  of  decay.  When  time 
at  last  began  to  do  its  work  upon  the  Republic,  Venice 
had  been  independent  nine  hundred  years;  she  was 
still  at  the  height  of  her  glory,  still  in  the  magnifi- 
cence of  her  outward  splendour,  but  the  long-strained 
machinery  of  government  was  beginning  to  wear  out. 

207 


2o8  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  ix 

At  the   commencement  of  the   seventeenth   century 

all  Italy  seemed  to  be  threatened  by  war;    the  peace 

*5<?8-  patched   up   between   Philip   II.   of  Spain 

Rom.vii.5.  an(j  Henry  IV.  of  France  at  Vervins  had 
been  of  an  unsatisfactory  and  precarious  nature;  the 
Holy  See  was  more  and  more  on  its  guard  against  the 
Protestant  powers,  and  Spain  took  advantage  of  this  in 
order  to  sow  discord  between  the  court  of  Rome  and 
other  governments.  Venice  was  especially  involved  in 
these  difficulties,  because  she  had  signed  in  1589  a 
commercial  treaty  with  the  Grisons  which  had  greatly 
displeased  Spain,  the  latter  being  then  in 
possession  of  Milan.  The  Republic  was 
accused  of  being  too  obliging  to  Protestants,  and  her 
enemies  assured  the  Pope  that  she  had  seriously 
endangered  the  safety  of  the  Catholic  Church  by 
allowing  the  English  ambassador  to  have  an  Anglican 
Church  service  in  his  private  oratory.  The  com- 
plaints of  Clement  VIII.  and  Paul  V.  were  received 
with  stony  indifference  by  the  Republic,  which  never 
had  the  slightest  respect  for  Rome.  The  latter  had 
many  causes  of  complaint.  Venice  had  been  granted 
in  former  times  the  privilege  of  trying  priests  for 
ordinary  crimes  in  the  ordinary  courts,  on  condition 
that  the  Patriarch  should  sit  among  the  judges.  Little 
by  little  the  Venetian  government  stretched  this  privi- 
lege to  make  it  apply  to  all  suits  whatsoever  brought 

Rom.vii.43,    against  ecclesiastics,  and  in  most  cases  the 

notes.         Patriarch   was    not    even    represented.     It 

chanced,  at  the  very  time  when   the   Pope  had  com- 


CAMPIELLO    DELLE   ANCORE 


he  1 

$   \    .i&I  CAMHELLO 


x      \    \\  »\ 


ix  THE   DECADENCE  209 

plained  of  the  liberty  granted  to  the  English  ambas- 
sador, that  two  priests  were  accused  of  an  abominable 
crime,  and  were  tried  like  ordinary  delinquents.  1  his 
encroachment  upon  the  bulls  of  Innocent  VIII.  and 
Paul  III.  took  place  just  when  the  Senate  was  pass- 
ing a  law  which  greatly  restricted  the  holding  of 
property  by  the  clergy.  As  if  these  facts  were  not 
enough  to  show  the  Pope  that  the  Venetian  flock 
intended  to  manage  its  own  corner  of  the  Catholic 
fold  in  its  own  way,  the  government,  on  the  death 
of  the  Patriarch,  named  as  his  successor  a  member 
of  the  house  of  Vendramin,  and  merely  announced 
the  fact  to  the  court  of  Rome,  although  the  old 
canonical  law  required  that  in  cases  where  govern- 
ments were  authorised  to  appoint  their  bishops,  the 
latter  should  be  examined  and  approved  by  the  Pope's 
delegates. 

Spain  took  advantage  of  all  these  circumstances  to 
bring  about  a  complete  rupture  between  Venice  and 
the  Holy  See.  Paul  V.  now  hesitated  no  Rom%  viL  45< 
longer,  and  discharged  a  major  excommu-  5°~51- 
nication  against  the  whole  Venetian  State.  This  meas- 
ure produced  little  impression  on  the  Senate,  and  none 
at  all  on  the  Doge  Leonardo  Dandolo.  He  declared 
openly  that  the  sentence  was  unjust,  and  therefore  null 
and  void.  The  Capuchin,  Theatin,  and  Jesuit  orders 
closed  their  churches  in  obedience  to  the  Pope,  and 
were  immediately  expelled  from  Venetian  territory  by 
the  government.  The  Pope's  wrath  was  as  tremendous 
as  it  was  futile,   and  it  is  impossible  to  say  how  far 

VOL.  II.  —  P 


210         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  ix 

matters   might  have  gone  if  Henry  IV.   had   not   used 
his  influence  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation.     It  was 
his  interest  to  do  so  in  order  that  Venice,  being  friendly 
to  him,  might  in  a  measure  balance  the  power  of  hostile 
Spain,  and  he  sent  the  Cardinal  de  Joyeuse  to  Italy  to 
try  and  obtain  from  the  Pope  some  concession  which 
might   facilitate   an    act   of  submission   on 
the  part  of  the  Republic.     Spain  was  play- 
ing a  double  game  as  usual,  but  the  Cardinal  was  too 
much    for   the    Spanish    diplomatists,    and    he    brought 
about  an  arrangement  by  which  Venice  handed  over 
to  the   Pope  the  two   priests  who  were  on  trial,   and 
permitted"' the    Patriarch    to    undergo    the 

Row.  vii.  64.  .  -ill  "11 

examination  required  by  the  canonical  law. 
On  his  side  the  Pope  exempted  from  that  examination 
all   future   Patriarchs. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  the  usually  docile  Venetian 
population  greatly  resented  the  attitude  taken  by  the 
government  towards  the  Holy  See.  The  Doge  him- 
self was  hissed  and  howled  at  when  he  went  to  the 
church  of  Santa  Maria  Formosa  on  the  Feast  of  Candle- 
mas. 'Long  live  the  Doge  Grimani,  the  father  of  the 
poor,'  yelled  the  rabble,  for  Grimani  had  been  a  man 
of  exemplary  piety  and  had  been  dead  and  buried  for 
some  time.  'The  day  will  come  when  you  shall  wish 
to  go  to  church  and  shall  not  be  able!'  screamed 
others.     Even   after  the  reconciliation  with  the  Pope, 

Spain    did    not   cease   to   conspire    against 

Rom.  vii.  251.  r  . 

the  Republic,  and  while  persecuting  the 
Catholics    in    Valtellina    tried    to    make    out    that    the 


[X 


THE   DECADENCE 


211 


Republic  was  allied  with  the  Protestant  powers  because 
it  opposed  those  persecutions. 

It  is  impossible  to  speak  of  the  quarrels  between 
Venice  and  Rome  without  mentioning  the  monk  Paolo 
Sarpi   who   played   so   large   a   part   in   them.     At  the 


J9 


%> 


SANTA    MARIA    FORMOSA 


time  when  the  attitude  of  the  Pope  made  it  clear  that 
serious  trouble  was  at  hand,  the  Signory  felt  the  need 
of  consulting  a  theologian  in  order  to  give  her  resistance 
something  like  an  orthodox  shape.  There  was  at  that 
time  in  Venice  a  monk  well  known  for  his  profound 
learning  and  austere  life.  He  had  entered  the  order  of 
the  Servites  as  a  novice  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  and  was 


212  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  ix 

n<>\\    fifty-four  years   old.     In   more   than   forty  years 

his  love  of  retirement  and  study  and   his 

profound  devotion  had  suffered  no  change. 

He  was  brought  from  his  seclusion  by  an  order  from 

the  Senate  to  give  his  opinions  on  the  burning  questions 

of  the  moment.     Fra  Paolo  Sarpi  vigorously  sustained 

the  cause  of  the  Republic,  and  was  at  once  denounced 

to  the  Pope  as  a  sectarian  and  a  secret  partisan  of  the 

Protestants.     Fanatics    attempted   to    assassinate    him, 

and  the  government  spread  the  report  that  the  murder 

statue  of  Fm     had  been  attempted  by  the  court  of  Rome. 

Paolo  sarpi     These     reports     further    exasperated     the 

erected  in  1812  .  f_ 

in  the  chmck  of  Vatican   against   him,   while  the   Republic 

nTa'rtiulTo't     supported    him    all    the    more    obstinately 

where  he        anc|  consulted  him  on  every  occasion.     He 

narrowly  escaped  .  1 1      1    •  1  ■  1  ■         in 

assassination,     was  installed  in  a  little  house  in  the  Square 
of  Saint  Mark's  in  order  to  be  within  easy 
reach  of  the  ducal  palace,   and  the  severest  penalties 
were  threatened  for  any  attempt  against  his  life. 

In  spite  of  these  precautions  two  more  attempts 
were  made  to  assassinate  him,  and  he  was  heard  to  say 
that  death  would  be  preferable  to  the  existence  which 
the  government  obliged  him  to  lead.  Nevertheless 
he  lived  sixteen  years  in  the  service  of  the  Republic. 
The  unbounded  confidence  which  was  placed  in  him 
is  amply  proved  by  the  fact  that  he,  and  he  only,  in 
the  history  of  the  Council  of  Ten,  was  allowed  free 
access  to  its  archives,  a  privilege  which,  oddly  enough, 
proved  fatal  to  him ;  for  it  was  while  working  on  his 
own  account  amongst  those  documents  that  he  caught 


ix  THE  DECADENCE  213 

a  cold  from  which  he  never  recovered,  and  he  died 
three  months  afterwards  in  the  winter  of  1622.  On 
the  fourteenth  of  January  he  felt  his  end  approaching, 
and  the  news  was  at  once  known  throughout  the  city. 
The  Signory  at  once  sent  for  Fra  Fulgenzio,  his  most 
intimate  friend.  'How  is  Fra  Paolo?'  inquired  the 
Ten.  'He  is  at  the  last  extremity,'  answered  the 
monk.  'Has  he  all  his  wits?'  'As  if  he  were  quite 
well,'  answered  Fra  Paolo's  friend. 

Immediately  three  questions  regarding  an  important 
affair  were  sent  to  the  dying  man,  who  concentrated 
his  mind  upon  them  and  dictated  the  answers  with 
marvellous  clearness  and  precision.  His  last  words 
were  a  prayer  for  his  country's  enduring  greatness. 
'Esto  perpetual'  he  prayed  as  he  closed  his  eyes  for 
ever. 

The  government  gave  him  a  magnificent  funeral, 
and  ordered  the  sculptor  Campagna  to  make  a  marble 
bust  of  him  for  the  church  of  the  Servites;  but  the 
Venetian  ambassador  in  Rome  advised  the  Republic 
not  to  rouse  the  Pope's  anger  again  by  such  a  tribute 
to  the  great  monk's  memory.  We  are  not  called  upon 
to  decide  upon  the  orthodoxy  of  Fra  Paolo's  opinions, 
but  he  was  undeniably  one  of  the  greatest  and  most 
gifted  Italians  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  troubles  with  Rome,  and  the  general  excom- 
munication which  had  brought  them  to  a  crisis,  had 
disturbed  the  confidence  of  the  Venetian  people  in 
their  government  more  than  anything  that  had  hap- 
pened  for  years;    and   soon   afterwards   matters  were 


2i4  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  ix 

made  worse  by  the  terrible  judicial  murder  of  Antonio 
Foscarini,  in  which  England  was  deeply  concerned. 

Foscarini  was  a  fine  specimen  of  the  patriotic 
Venetian  noble,  devoted  to  his  country,  imbued  with 
the  most  profound  respect  for  the  aristocratic  caste  to 
which  he  belonged,  haughty  and  contemptuous  towards 
most  other  people,  as  the  following  anecdote  shows. 
He  was  in  Paris  as  ambassador  when  Maria  de'  Medici, 
the  wife  of  Henry  IV.,  was  crowned,  and  as  he  had 
only  recently  arrived  he  was  not  acquainted  with  all 
his  diplomatic  colleagues  when  he  met  them  in  the 
church  of  Saint  Denis.  After  the  ceremony  he  bowed 
to  the  Spanish  Ambassador,  who  inquired  who  the 
stranger  was  who  saluted  him.  Foscarini  introduced 
himself.  'Oh,'  exclaimed  the  Spaniard,  'the  Ambas- 
sador of  the  Pantaloons  ! '  '  Pantaloon '  was  a  Venetian 
theatrical  mask,  and  the  word  had  become  a  contempt- 
uous nickname  for  the  Venetians.     But  the  Spaniard 

Moimenti,      had  counted  without  his  host,  for  Foscarini 

st.ekic  fe]j  Up011  him  then  and  there.  He  de- 
scribed what  he  did  in  a  letter  to  his  government:  'I 
loaded  the  Spanish  Ambassador  with  vigorous  blows 
and  kicks,  as  he  deserved.' 

A  Venetian,  Pietro  Gritti,  who  was  in  Foscarini's 
suite,  wrote  a  letter  at  the  same  time  in  which  he  said 
that  his  chief  kicked  the  Spanish  Ambassador  down  the 
whole  length  of  the  court. 

Foscarini  was  afterwards  ambassador  in  England, 
and  the  long  series  of  circumstances  which  led  to  his 
tragic  end  dates  from  that  period.     He  was  still  young, 


ix  THE   DECADENCE  215 

he  was  inclined  to  be  fond  of  amusement,  and  for  some 
unknown  reason  the  secretaries  of  embassy  who  were 
sent  with  him  hated  him  and  calumniated  him  in  the 
basest  manner,  accusing  him  to  the  Council  of  Ten 
of  being  a  Protestant  in  secret,  and  of  carrying  on  a 
treacherous  correspondence  with  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment. But  there  was  worse  than  this.  A  famous 
French  spy,  La  Foret,  bribed  Foscarini's  valet,  Robazza, 
got  access  to  the  ambassador's  rooms  when  he  was  out, 
and  copied  his  most  important  letters  for  the  French 
government. 

His  second  secretary  of  embassy,  Muscorno,  ob- 
tained leave  to  return  to  Venice  on  pretence  of  visiting 
his  father  who  was  ill,  and  when  Foscarini  was  suddenly 
recalled  he  found  the  ground  prepared  for  an  abominable 
action  against  him.  He  himself,  his  valet,  and  his 
chaplain  were  all  imprisoned,  and  his  trial  for  high 
treason  began.  It  proceeded  very  slowly,  but  he  was 
acquitted  after  having  been  in  prison  three  years,  for 
Robazza  confessed  his  treachery  without  being  tortured. 
Having  been  declared  innocent  of  high  treason,  Foscarini 
had  little  difficulty  in  disproving  some  minor  accusations 
that  were  brought  against  him;  and  a  few  weeks  after 
his  release  he  appeared  before  the  Senate  to  give  an 
official  account  of  his  embassy  in  England.  Muscorno, 
who  had  accused  him  falsely,  was  condemned  to  two 
years'  imprisonment  in  a  fortress;  Robazza,  the  valet 
who  had  been  bribed,  had  his  right  hand  struck  off  and 
was  exiled  for  twenty  years. 

James    I.    of  England   sent   Foscarini   especial   con- 


216         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  ix 

gratulations,  and  he  was  again  employed  in  important 
affairs.  Unhappily,  however,  Museorno  had  a  succes- 
sor worthy  of  him  in  the  person  of  Girolamo  Vano,  a 
professional  spy  in  the  service  of  the  Republic.  If  by 
any  chance  the  smallest  State  secret  was  known  abroad, 
it  was  always  insinuated  by  Foscarini's  enemies  that  he 
was  responsible  for  divulging  it,  and  it  was  quite  in 
keeping  with  the  ordinary  practice  of  the  Venetian 
government  to  employ  spies  to  watch  a  man  who  had 
been  once  suspected,  even  though  he  had  been  declared 
innocent  and  was  again  in  high  office. 

The  spy  Vano  took  advantage  of  Foscarini's  friend- 
ship, or  affection,  for  the  English  Countess  of  Arundel, 
as   a  means  of  making  out  a  strong  case 

Rom.vii.183.  .  ••Ill  u 

against  him.  roscarmi  had  known  her  in 
London,  and  she  had  afterwards  made  long  visits  to 
Venice,  in  order  to  be  near  her  sons,  who  were  making 
their  studies  at  the  university  of  Padua.  At  her 
house  Foscarini  often  met  the  Envoy  of  Florence  and 
the  secretaries  of  the  Spanish  and  Austrian  embassies. 

She  did.  not  spend  all  her  time  in  Venice,  however, 
but  was  often  many  months  in  England.  It  was  when 
she  was  returning  to  Venice  after  one  of  these  absences 
that  she  was  stopped  at  some  distance  from  the  city 
by  a  messenger  from  the  English  ambassador,  Sir 
Henry  Wotton,  who  entreated  her  to  turn  back.  The 
unfortunate  Foscarini  had  been  convicted  of  high 
treason  and  strangled,  and  his  corpse  was  that  very 
morning  hanging  between  the  two  red  columns  of  the 
fatal   window   in   the   ducal   palace.     Lady   Arundel's 


IX 


THE  DECADENCE 


217 


name  had  been  connected  during  the  trial  with  that  of 
the  condemned  man,  and  the  ambassador  was  anxious 
to  save  her  any  possible  trouble. 

But  she  was   not  of  the  sort  that  turns   back  from 
danger  at  such  times,  and  that  very  evening  she  reached 


GRAND   CANAL,    LOOKING  TOWARDS   MOCENIGO    PALACE 


the  English  Embassy  and  demanded  an  audience  of 
the  Doge;  it  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  she 
could  be  made  to  understand  the  impossibility  of  being 
admitted  until  the  next  morning,  and  she  reluctantly 
retired  for  the  night  to  her  hired  house,  that  Mocenigo 
palace  which  was  afterwards  successively  inhabited  by 
Ladv  Mary  Wortley  Montagu  and  by  Lord  Byron. 


2i8  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  ix 

On  the  morrow  the  ambassador  went  with  her  to 
the  ducal  palace,  and  she  must  have  passed  below  the 
window  from  which  the  body  of  her  friend  had  hung 
all  the  previous  day.  She  was  admitted  to  the  presence 
of  the  Signory,  and  the  Doge  made  her  sit  on  his  right 
hand.  She  now  learned  that  she  was  believed  to  have 
allowed  Foscarini  to  use  her  house  as  a  place  from 
which  to  carry  on  intrigues  with  foreign  courts.  Sir 
Henry  Wotton  spoke  in  the  Countess's  defence,  and 
proved  that  her  relations  with  Foscarini  had  always 
been  of  the  most  honourable  character,  and  that  the 
two  had  not  met  for  many  months.  England's  star 
was  in  the  ascendant,  Elizabeth  had  reigned,  and  it  was 
not  good  to  contradict  an  English  ambassador  nor  to 
speak  lightly  of  an  English  lady.  The  Doge  made 
the  Countess  his  most  humble  excuses  and  promised  to 
send  them  to  her  husband,  the  Earl  Marshal,  through 
the  Venetian  ambassador  in  London. 

The  Senate  took  cognisance  of  the  affair  also,  and 
voted  a  small  sum  of  money  to  be  expended  in  a 
present  of  comfits  and  wax  to  the  Countess,  this  being 
the  custom  for  all  persons  of  quality  who  appeared 
before  the  Signory.  But  that  was  all.  Lady  Arundel 
had  exculpated  herself,  but  so  far  Foscarini's  guilt 
seemed  to  be  so  incontrovertibly  proved,  that  Fra 
Paolo  Sarpi  refused  to  accept  a  legacy  which  the 
unhappy  patrician  had  left  him  in  his  last  will. 

But  as  time  went  on  the  whole  of  Vano's  fabricated 
evidence  began  to  go  to  pieces.  The  Inquisitors  of 
State  themselves  seem  to  have  been  the  first  to  suspect 


ix  THE   DECADENCE  219 

that  they   had   made   a   mistake,   and   before   long  the 
dreadful  truth  was  only  too  clear.    Foscarini  , 

J  Rom.  int.  /go  ; 

had  been  perfectly  innocent  and  had  been  Armand Baschet, 

.....  T  .hen.  631. 

murdered   by  justice.     It  was   not   a   case 

that  could  be  hushed  and  put  out  of  the  way,  either, 

for  too  many  people  knew  what  had  happened. 

The  Council  of  Ten  made  amends :  let  us  give 
them  such  credit  as  we  can  for  their  public  repentance, 
without  inquiring  too  closely  what  pressure  was  brought 
to  bear  upon  them  by  the  public,  and  not  improbably 
by  England.  Monsieur  Baschet  becomes  lyric  in  his 
praise  of  their  magnanimity.  For  my  part,  I  do  not 
think  it  would  have  been  safe  for  the  Council  to  try 
and  hide  its  mistake.  The  Ten  apologised  amply 
before  the  world  :  that  is  the  important  matter.  Mon- 
sieur Baschet  gives  the  original  text  of  the  apology, 
of  which  I  translate  a  part  from  the  Italian :  — 

'Since  the  Providence  of  our  Lord  God  has  disposed, 
by  means  truly  miraculous  and  incomprehensible  to 
human  intelligence,  that  the  authors  and  promoters  of 
the  lies  and  impostures  machinated  against  our  late 
beloved  and  noble  Antonio  Foscarini  should  be  dis- 
covered .  .  .,  it  behoves  the  justice  and  mercy  of 
this  Council,  whose  especial  business  it  is,  for  the 
general  quiet  and  safety  to  protect  the  immunity  of  the 
honour  and  reputation  of  families,  to  rehabilitate  as  far 
as  possible  those  who  lie  under  the  imputation  of  an 
infamous  crime  .  .  .,'  and  so  on. 

The  Ten  also  decreed  that  an  inscription  should  be 
set  up  in  the  church  of  Sant'  Eustachio,  recording  the 


220         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  ix 

error  of  the  court,  a  unique  example  of  such  a  public 
and  enduring  retractation. 

Other  circumstances  occurred  to  prove  that  organisa- 
tion of  the  Venetian  tribunals  was  beginning  to  wear 
out.  Too  many  conflicting  regulations  had  been 
introduced,  and  there  were  too  many  magistracies. 
Venice  was  'over-administered,'  as  generally  happens 
to  old  countries,  and  sometimes  to  new  ones  that  are 
too  anxious  to  be  scientifically  governed.  The  jurisdic- 
tions of  the  difFerent  officials  often  encroached  upon 
one  another.  The  three  Inquisitors  of  State  were 
frequently  at  odds  with  the  other  seven  members  of 
the  Council  of  Ten,  and  in  the  confusion  which  this 
caused  it  was  impossible  that  the  laws  should  be  as 
well  administered  as  formerly. 

About  this  time  a  grave  case  enlightened  the  public 
as  to  certain  abuses  of  which  the  existence  had  not 
Rom.vii.210,  been  previously  suspected.  The  Council 
215,223,220.  0f  Ten  was  always  charged  with  the  duty 
of  seeing  that  the  Doge  performed  to  the  letter  the 
promises  of  the  'Promission  ducale.'  These  solemn 
engagements  were  several  times  violated  by  the  Doge 
Corner  for  the  advantage  of  his  sons.  He  allowed  one 
of  them  to  accept  the  dignity  of  the  Cardinalate  while 
two  others  were  made  senators,  but  as  the  Council  of 
Ten  did  not  like  to  interfere,  one  of  its  heads,  Renier 
Zeno,  took  upon  himself  to  impeach  the  Doge.  The 
latter  was  accused  of  illegal  acts  in  contradiction  with 
the  'Promission,'  and  the  question  was  taken  up  by  the 
whole  aristocracy  and  discussed  before  all  the  difFerent 


ix  THE  DECADENCE  221 

Councils.  The  opposite  parties  were  fast  reaching  a 
state  of  exasperation,  when  one  of  the  Doge's  sons 
attempted  the  life  of  Renier  Zeno.  He  and  his 
accomplices  were  merely  exiled  to  Ferrara,  and  the 
lenity  of  the  sentence  sufficiently  shows  the  weakness 
of  the  government. 

At  the  same  time  Renier  Zeno  was  arbitrarily  for- 
bidden, contrary  to  all  law,  to  call  into  question  the 
conduct  of  the  courts  in  general,  but  he  was  too  proud 
and  energetic  to  submit  to  such  despotism,  and  what  it 
pleased  the  Council  of  Ten  to  call  his  'pride'  served 
his  adversaries  as  a  pretext  for  accusing  him.  The 
Council  had  the  imprudence  to  condemn  him  to  ten 
years'  imprisonment  in  the  fortress  of  Cattaro;  but 
this  was  too  much,  and  the  Ten  were  soon  forced  to 
revoke  the  sentence  as  completely  as  they  had  annulled 
that  of  the  unfortunate  Foscarini.  But  the  world  saw, 
and  the  prestige  of  the  Council  was  gone;  the  govern- 
ment cast  about  in  vain  for  some  means  of  restoring 
it,  and  could  find  nothing  to  do  except  to  make  a  few 
reforms  and  changes  in  its  old  system  of  spying  and 
repression. 

Ever  since  the  fourteenth  century  there  had  been  a 
locked  box  with  a  slit  in  it,  placed  in  a  public  part  of 
the  ducal  palace,  into  which  any  one  might  drop  an 
anonymous  written  accusation  against  any  one  else, 
from  the  Doge  down.  Little  by  little  the  use  of  this 
means  of  'informing'  developed,  until  it  had  now 
become  common  to  try  cases  on  the  mere  strength  of 
such  unsupported  accusations.     The  boxes  were  called 


222 


(il  h.WINGS    FROM    HISTORY 


IX 


the  Lions'  Mouths  on  account  of  the  shape  they  had 
taken,  and  there  was  much  talk  about  them  when  it 
was  attempted  to  reform  the  Code  of  Laws  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  A  decree  of  the  year  1635 
restored  the  old  regulations  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
misdeeds  which  might  be  thus  denounced. 


THE   FONDAMENTA  S.   GIORGIO,   REDENTORE   IN    DISTANCE 

It  was  decided  that  if  the  accusation  was  signed, 
four-fifths  of  the  judges  must  agree  before  the  case 
could  be  brought  to  trial ;  if  the  information  was 
anonymous  there  could  be  no  trial  without  the  consent 
of  the  Doge,  his  counsellors,  and  the  chiefs  of  the  Ten 
to  bring  the  case  before  the  Great  Council,  and  the  trial 
could  not  be  opened  unless  it  were  voted  necessary  by 


ix  THE  DECADENCE  223 

five-sixths  of  the  assembly.  These  measures  were  no 
doubt  prudent,  but  it  was  the  system  itself  that  was  at 
fault;  any  Venetian  was  authorised  by  it  to  take  upon 
himself  the  duties  of  a  detective,  and  was  encouraged  to 
spy  on  his  neighbours,  because  the  courts  generally 
rewarded  the  informer  after  a  conviction. 

It  is  always  a  fault  in  a  government  to  make  laws 
unchangeable  like  those  of  the  Medes  and  Persians, 
and  some  authors  have  said  that  the  Venetian  Republic 
never  looked  upon  any  of  its  decrees  as  immutable. 
This  is  true  as  regards  the  form,  for  no  government 
ever  remodelled  its  laws  more  often  in  their  text.  Some- 
times the  same  decree  appears  in  more  than  one  hundred 
shapes,  but  neither  the  spirit  nor  the  point  of  view  is 
modified.  A  law  passed  against  the  freemasons  in  the 
eighteenth  century  is  conceived  in  precisely  the  same 
spirit  as  the  decrees  against  the  conspirators  in  the  days 
of  Baiamonte  Tiepolo  and  Marin  Faliero;  the  last 
Missier  Grande  of  the  police  was  very  like  the  sbirri  of 
the  Middle  Ages  in  character  and  in  methods.  The 
Republic  was  growing  old;  the  tree  might  still  bear 
fruit,  but  the  fruit  it  bore  had  no  longer  within  it  the 
seeds  of  future  life. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  Venetian  diplomacy  was 
better  of  its  kind  than  Venetian  magistracies.  During 
the     thirty     years'     war,      for     instance, 

tt      •  ,  •    1  r     1  Rom.vii.27s. 

Venice  never  once  lost  sight  of  the  great 
object  it  had  in  view,  which  was  to  abase  the  closely 
related   powers   of  Spain    and   Austria,   while   skilfully 
avoiding  any  action  which  might  bring  about  reprisals. 


224 


(,l  I  WIMi.s    FROM    HISTORY 


IX 


On  the  other  hand,  it  was  impossible  to  remain 
neutral  in  the  war  of  succession  to  the  Duchy  of 
Mantua,  in  which  Carlo  Gonzaga,  Duke 
of  Nevers,  was  supported  by  France,  and 
Ferrante    Gonzaga    by    the    Emperor.       As    Austria's 


Rohi.  vii.  276. 


^ 


s    V 


-. 

'-    V 

- 


' 


STEPS   OF   THE    REDENTOKE 


enemy,  Venice  naturally  backed  the  former.  Venice 
furnished  him  abundantly  with  money  and  soldiers,  and 
between  the  month  of  November  1629  ar,d  trie  month 
of  March  following,  spent  six  hundred  and  thirty- 
eight  thousand  ducats  to  support  the  party  which  was 
defending  the  cause  of  Italian  independence  against 
the  Empire.     Austria  nevertheless  succeeded,  and  got 


rx  THE   DECADENCE  225 

the  better  of  the  formidable  coalition;  but  though  the 
Imperials  took  possession  of  Mantua  at  the  time,  they 
were  obliged  to  give  it  up  to  Carlo  Gonzaga  soon  after- 
wards, in  April  1631,  by  the  treaty  of  Cherasco. 

About  the  same  time  Venice  suffered  another 
terrible  visitation  of  the  plague,  and  more  than  thirty- 
six  thousand  persons  perished  in  the  city 

.  /-%••!  •  •  I  Rom.  vii.  302. 

alone.  On  a  similar  occasion  in  1575  the 
Venetians  had  vowed  a  church  to  the  Redeemer  if  the 
plague  was  stayed,  and  the  church  they  built  is  that  of 
the  Redentore;  in  1630  a  church  was  vowed  to  the 
Blessed  Virgin,  under  the  name  of  the  Madonna  della 
Salute.     This  was  at  first  only  a  wooden 

.....  .  1   •    1  1         1        •    •  Rom.vii.jo6. 

building,   in    which    a    great   thanksgiving 

took   place   on   the   first  of  November.       The   present 

church  was  not  finished  until  1687. 

Amongst  the  many  circumstances  which  hastened 
the  decadence  of  the  Republic  during  the  seventeenth 
century  was  the  terrible  war  in  Crete.  In 
that  memorable  struggle  with  the  Turks 
for  the  possession  of  the  island  the  Venetians  displayed 
much  of  their  old  heroism  and  good  generalship,  but 
the  Republic  was  no  longer  young,  and  could  not 
make  such  gigantic  efforts  with  impunity;  Venice  was 
permanently  weakened  by  that  last  great  war.  It 
originated  in  a  piece  of  rash  imprudence  on  the  part  of 
the  Knights  of  Malta,  who  seized  a  number  of  Turkish 
vessels;  it  lasted  twenty-five  years,  and  it  cost  the 
Republic  her  best  generals  and  her  bravest  soldiers, 
besides  vast  sums  of  money.     Yet  the  enthusiasm  was 

VOL.  II.  —  Q 


226  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  ix 

boundless;  mindful  of  Enrico  Dandolo  and  Andrea 
Contarini,  the  aged  Doge  Francesco  Erizzo  determined 
to  take  command  himself,  but  death  overtook  him 
on  the  eve  of  his  departure. 

Prodigies  of  valour  were  performed.  Tommaso 
Morosini,  with  a  single  ship,  victoriously  resisted  the 
attack  of  forty-five  Turkish  galleys,  but  lost  his  life  in 
the  engagement.  Lorenzo  Marcello  took  eighty-four 
Turkish  vessels  and  their  crews  with  a  far  inferior 
force,  but  like  Morosini  he  was  killed  in  the  fight. 
Ten  thousand  Turks  were  slain  and  five  thousand  were 
taken  prisoners. 

Europe  looked  on  in  amazement  and  admiration, 
and  many  brave  captains  and  soldiers  thought  it  an 
honour  to  serve  under  the  standard  of  Saint  Mark. 
There  were  more  Germans  and  Frenchmen  among 
these  volunteers  than  soldiers  of  other  nations,  and 
Louis  XIV.  himself  hoped  to  associate  his  name  with 
the  campaign.  He  sent  the  Due  de  Beaufort  with  a 
considerable  fleet,  twelve  of  his  best  regiments,  and  a 
detachment  of  the  Guards,  besides  a  great  number  of 
volunteers  under  the  command  of  the  Due  de  Noailles. 
Yet  all  was  in  vain,  and  after  a  quarter  of  a  century  of 
fighting  Venice  was  obliged  to  yield  Crete  to  the 
Turks. 

The  peace  was  of  no  long  duration,  for  the  Turks 
attacked  Austria  next,  and,  though  the  brave  Sobieski 
drove  them  away  from  Vienna,  they  allied  themselves 
with  the  Hungarians,  and  became  so  dangerous  to  the 
Empire  that  the  Pope  himself  was  in  anxiety  for  the 


ix  THE   DECADENCE  227 

safety  of  Christianity  in  general.  Exhausted  by  her 
long  war  in  Crete,  the  Republic  attempted  to  decline 
all  requests  that  she  should  join  a  league  against  the 
Turks,  but  was  at  last  obliged  to  yield,  and  war  was 
renewed  in  the  Archipelago  and  the  Peloponnesus. 

Francesco  Morosini,  the  same  general  who  a  few 
years  earlier  had  been  obliged  to  evacuate  Crete  after 
the    most    heroic    efforts,    was    placed    in 

1       r    1       17  r  1  Rom.  vii.  ./go. 

command  or  the  Venetian  forces  and  com- 
missioned to  drive  the  Turks  from  the  islands  of  Santa 
Maura  and  other  strong  places  in  the  Ionian  Sea.  On 
the  eleventh  of  August  1687  a  swift  felucca  brought  to 
Venice  news  that  Morosini  had  taken  Patras  and 
Corinth,  besides  Santa  Maura.  In  joyful  Bust  of  Francesco 
enthusiasm  the  Senate  forthwith  voted  the  ^c££? 
victor  a  bronze  bust,  which  was  placed  in  °f  7en- 
the  hall  of  the  Council  of  Ten,  with  the  standard  taken 
from  the  Turks.     It  bears  the  inscription:  — 

Francisco  Mauroce-no 

Peloponnesiaco  adhuc  viventi 

Senatus. 

Another  monument  in  Venice  recalls  the  glorious 
war  of  the  Peloponnesus.  After  having  taken  Athens, 
Morosini  hastened  to  the  Parthenon,  for  he  Quadri,3o2; 
appears  to  have  been  a  man  of  highly  cul-  K07n.vu.4g1. 
tivated  tastes.  To  his  inexpressible  disappointment  he 
found  the  temple  half  ruined,  for  the  Turks  had  used  it 
as  a  powder  magazine,  and  a  Venetian  bomb  had  blown 
it  up.     Morosini  was  so  much  overcome  that  he  broke 


228         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  ix 

out  into  lamentations  over  a  loss  which  nothing  could 
replace.  But  there  amidst  piles  of  ruins  he  saw  two 
splendid  lions  of  marble  from  Pentelicus,  which  he  at 
once  caused  to  be  placed  on  board  his  vessel,  rather  to 
save  them,  perhaps,  than  to  exhibit  them  as  trophies.  In 
Venice  they  were  set  up  on  each  side  of  the  gate  of  the 
Arsenal. 

Morosini    was    one    of   the    few    Venetian    generals 

who  was   not  made  to  suffer  for  his  success.     When 

r688.  at    the    very    height    of    his    triumph    he 

Rom.vii.504.    iearnt    that    ne    was    elected    Doge,    and 

though  he  had  little  success  in  the  campaign  after  that, 
and  was  even  dangerously  ill,  he  was  magnificently 
received  when  he  returned  to  Venice.  Pope  Alexander 
VIII.,  Ottoboni,  sent  him  the  staff  and  military  hat 
which  it  was  customary  to  give  to  generals  who  had 
distinguished  themselves  in  war  against  infidels.  But 
it  was  clear  that  in  his  absence  nothing  could  be 
accomplished,  and  he  soon  obtained  permission  of  the 
government  to  take  command  of  the  Venetian  forces 
once  more.  His  departure  on  the  twenty-fourth  of 
May  1693  was  a  sort  °f  national  festivity.  The 
Senate  went  to  fetch  him  in  his  own  apartment,  and  a 
long  procession  accompanied  him  to  Saint  Mark's. 
Preceded  by  halberdiers,  singers,  files  of  servants  in 
liveries  of  scarlet  velvet  and  gold,  many  priests,  canons, 
and  the  Patriarch  himself,  besides  the  traditional  silver 
trumpets,  the  Doge  walked  between  the  Pope's  nuncio 
and  the  French  ambassador.  He  wore  the  full  dress 
of  a  Venetian  commander-in-chief,  which  was  of  gold 


IX 


THE   DECADENCE 


229 


brocade  with  a  long  train.  But  even  in  his  glory  the 
Venetians  noticed  with  displeasure  and  suspicion  that  he 
carried  in  his  hand  the  staff  of  the  General,  which  he 
evidently  preferred  to  the  sceptre  of  the  Doge,  and 
which  suggested  to  the  crowd  the  thought  that  he 
might  seize  the  supreme  power. 


On  the  following  day  he  embarked  upon  the 
Bucentaur,  which  took  him  on  board  his  flagship  amidst 
the  applause  of  the  crowd,  the  pealing  of  the  church 
bells,  and  a  salute  of  artillery  from  the  fort  of  Saint 
Nicholas  on  the  Lido,  as  his  vessel  got  under  way. 

The    expedition    proved   of   little    advantage  to    the 


230  GLEANINGS   FROM  HISTORY  ix 

Republic,  and  cost  Morosini  his  life,  for  his  health  was 
undermined  by  the  fatigues  of  his  previous  campaigns, 
and  he  died  in  the  Greek  province  of  Romania,  where 
he  had  hoped  to  rest  for  a  few  weeks.  His  body 
was  brought  back  to  Venice,  and  buried  with  great 
pomp  in  the  church  of  Santo  Stefano. 

The  war  went  on  under  his  successor,  Silvestro 
Valier,  but  it  now  entered  upon  a  new  phase,  for  the 
Czar  Peter  the  Great  threatened  the  Turks  on  their 
northern  frontier,  while  the  Venetian  fleet  held  them  in 
check  in  the  south.  A  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  at 
Carlowitz  in  1699,  by  which  the  Republic  kept  her 
conquests  in  the  Morea  as  far  as  the  isthmus  of  Corinth, 
including  the  islands  of  Egina,  Santa  Maura,  and  other 
less  important  places.  Dalmatia  was  also  left  to  her, 
but  she  was  obliged  to  withdraw  her  troops  from 
Lepanto  and  Romania  on  the  north  side  of  the  Gulf  of 
Corinth. 

From  all  this  it  is  clear  that  the  military  spirit  was 

still  alive  in  Venice,  when  the  administration  had  almost 

completely   broken   down.     Nothing  gives 

Rom.  vn.  370,  r  /  _  o    o 

371,487;       the   measure  of  the  situation   better  than 
h  293-      tjie  fact  tjlat  jn  or(jer  to  meet  the  expenses 

of  the  war  in  Crete  any  Venetian  who  would  engage 
to  support  a  thousand  soldiers  for  o,ne  year,  or  any 
foreigner  who  would  support  twelve  hundred  for  the 
same  period,  was  allowed  thereby  to  have  and  hold  all 
the  privileges  of  nobility.  This  speculation  was  never 
sanctioned  by  law,  and  was  even  rejected  by  the  Great 
Council  when  proposed,  but  it  was  nevertheless  actually 


ix  THE   DECADENCE  231 

practised,  and  a  number  of  seats  in  the  Great  Council 
were  sold  to  the  highest  bidder.  The  government 
went  one  step  farther,  and  sold  the  office  of  procurator 
of  Saint  Mark.  The  decadence  had  reached  the  point 
of  decay. 


THE    KIVA    l'KOM    THli   DOGANA 


X 


THE  LAST  HOMES— THE  LAST  GREAT 
LADIES 


Two  men,  a  painter  and  a  dramatist,  have  left  us  the 

means  of  knowing  exactly  what  the  eighteenth  century 

Pictures  of      was    in   Venice.     It   is    not   a    paradox   to 

VmU££k£h    say  that    Longhi    painted    comedies,   and 

Accademia.Room  that  Goldoni  wrote  portraits.      Both  were 

XI V.,  and  Museo    -r  T  •  r       1  1        1       1 

Correr,  Rooms     Venetians,    and   they    had   the   courage   to 

n.  and  ix.      depict  and  describe  respectively  the  glaring 

faults  of  their  own  people,  not  realising,  perhaps,  that 

232 


THE   LAST   HOMES 


233 


the  general  corruption  was   beyond  remedy,   and  that 
the  end  was  at  hand. 


i  m    mm  ■  ■ 


fi  h$[4 


<"  m»        *£*- 


mmm  W 

"  *  'tWV"  R»(  fcKPF  ^^  . 


CAMTO    S.    BAKTOLOMEO.    STATUE   OF   GOLDON1 


Look  at  Longhi's  'Fortune-Teller'  or  'Dancing- 
Master,'  at  his  'Tailor,'  his  'Music-Master,'  or  his 
'Toilet,'  and  you  may  see  precisely  what  the  Republic 


234         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  x 

was  when  it  died  of  old  age;  there  are  all  the  succes- 
sions of  light  colours,  as  in  a  pastel-painter's  box;  you 
can  hear  the  high  running  laughter  that  rings  from 
rosy  lips,  you  can  guess  what  dreams  of  pleasure  fill 
those  pretty  heads,  and  yet  there  is  something  sad 
about  it  all;  unless  one  belongs  to  that  little  band  of 
human  beings  who  love  the  eighteenth  century,  it  sets 
one's  teeth  on  edge  —  like  the  dance  music  in  the  '  Ballo 
in  Maschera,'  danced  while  Riccardo  is  dying.  Some- 
thing rings  false;  I  think  there  is  too  much  discrepancy 
between  what  we  see  or  read  and  what  we  really  know 
about  that  time.  About  other  centuries,  even  the 
nineteenth  and  twentieth,  we  can  still  have  illusions,  but 
the  eighteenth  was  all  a  sham  that  went  to  pieces  with 
the  French  Revolution. 

As  for  the  position  of  women  at  that  time,  it  was 
never  lowTer.  They  were  dolls,  and  nothing  more. 
They  were  perhaps  more  neglected  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  but,  at  least  in  theory,  there  was  still  some 
respect  for  them.  In  the  eighteenth  they  existed  only 
to  adorn  places  of  amusement,  theatres,  and  gambling 
houses.  The  biographer  of  that  remarkable  woman, 
Giustina  Renier  Michiel,  says  they  were  so  little 
esteemed  that  it  seemed  useless  to  teach  them  any- 
thing, and  he  adds  that  the  Signory  looked  upon  an 
educated  woman  as  a  being  dangerous  to  society  and 
the  State. 

Most  young  girls  of  noble  family  were  brought  up  in 
convents,  where  the  most  crass  ignorance  accompanied 
the  loosest  ideas  of  morality.     The  greater  number  of 


x  THE   LAST  HOMES  235 

these    convents    were    only    nominally    connected    with 

the  ecclesiastical  authorities.     In   practice 
1  11   j    1       1         •  R0m.mU.351. 

they    were    controlled    by    lay    inspectors, 

'Provveditori  sopra  Monasteri,'  who  were  commissioned 
by  the  government  to  superintend  the  morals  of  con- 
vents in  general,  but  found  it  much  more  diverting  to 
help  in  undermining  them. 

While  the  girls  were  being  brought  up  in  such 
places,  their  father  was  chiefly  preoccupied  in  assuring 
and  increasing  the  fortune  which  was  to  be  inherited  by 
his  eldest  son.  The  natural  consequence  of  this  was 
that  the  marriage  portions  of  the  daughters  became 
smaller  and  smaller,  so  that  it  was  found  hard  to  marry 
them  at  all,  and  much  less  troublesome  to  leave  them 
in  their  convents  for  life.  Each  of  the  fashionable 
convents  was  a  little  court  of  noble  ladies;  in  the  one, 
Her  Most  Reverend  Excellency  *  the  Mother  Abbess 
was  a  Rezzonico;  in  another,  the  Noble  Dame  Eleonora 
Dandolo  was  Mistress  of  the  Larder. 

The  scholars  did  not  leave  the  convent  at  all  while 
their  education  lasted,  but  nothing  was  neglected  which 
could  amuse  them,  and  their  principal  lessons  were  in 
dancing,  singing,  and  reciting  verses.  In  Carnival,  the 
convent  parlours  were  turned  into  theatres  or  ball- 
rooms; dames  and  cavaliers  danced  the  minuet  or  the 
'furlana';  'Punch,'  'Pantaloon,'  and  'Pierrot'  vied 
with  each  other  to  make  the  bevies  of  aristocratic 
young  ladies  laugh  at  jests  they  should  never  have 
understood. 

Even  during  the  rest  of  the  year  the  convents  were 


236         GLEANINGS    FROM    HISTORY  x 

what   would    now    be   called    brilliant   social   centres,   to 

MuHnelli,       which   married   women  came  accompanied 

w.92.        ky    tnejr    officially     recognised     'cicisbei,' 

while  voung  gentlemen  of  leisure  flirted  with  the 
Mutineiu,  scholars.  It  was  even  common  for  the 
uit.61-62.      girls  to  keep  up  a  regular  correspondence 

with   their  admirers. 

Take     the     following     passage     which     I     translate 

from    Goldoni's    autobiography,    a    book    which    may 

Goidoni,voi.i.    be    trusted    and    is    singularly    free    from 

chap.xix.       exaggeration.     The  adventure  happened  to 

him  in  Chioeeia. 

I  had  always  cultivated  the  acquaintance  of  the  nuns  of 
Saint  Francis,  where  there  were  some  very  beautiful  scholars, 
and  the  Signora  B.  (one  of  the  nuns)  had  one  under  her  direc- 
tion who  was  very  lovely  and  very  rich  and  amiable.  She 
would  have  been  exactly  to  my  taste,  but  my  youth,  my  con- 
dition, and  my  want  of  fortune  did  not  allow  me  to  entertain 
any  illusions. 

However,  the  nun  did  not  refuse  me  hope,  and  when  I  went 
to  see  her  she  always  made  the  young  ladv  come  down  to  the 
parlour.  I  felt  that  I  should  become  attached  to  her  in  good 
earnest,  and  the  governess  (the  nun)  seemed  glad  of  it ;  and  vet 
I  could  not  believe  it  possible.  But  one  day  I  spoke  to  her 
of  my  inclination  and  of  my  timidity;  she  encouraged  me  and 
confided  the  secret  to  me.  This  young  lady  had  good  qualities 
and  property,  but  there  was  something  doubtful  about  her  birth. 
'  This  little  defect  is  nothing,'  said  the  veiled  lady  ;  '  the  girl  is 
well  behaved  and  well  brought  up,  and  I  will  be  surety  to  you 
for  her  character  and  conduct.  She  has  a  guardian,'  she  con- 
tinued, '  and  he  must  be  won  over,  but  leave  that  to  me.  It  is 
true  that  this  guardian,  who  is  very  old  and  ruined  in  health, 


x  THE   LAST  HOMES  237 

has  some  pretensions  as  to  his  ward,  but  he  is  wrong,  and  — 
well,  as  I  am  also  interested  in  this  —  leave  it  to  me,'  she  re- 
peated, '  and  I  will  manage  for  the  best.'  I  confess  that  after 
this  talk,  after  this  confidence  and  this  encouragement,  I  began 
to  think  myself  happy.  The  Signorina  N.  did  not  look 
unkindly  on  me,  and  I  considered  the  matter  as  settled.  All 
the  convent  had  noticed  my  inclination  for  the  pupil,  and  there 
were  some  young  ladies  who  knew  the  intrigues  of  the  parlour 
and  had  pity  on  me,  and  explained  to  me  what  was  happening; 
and  this  is  how  they  did  it.  The  windows  of  my  room  were 
precisely  opposite  the  belfry  of  the  convent.  In  building  it 
there  had  been  placed  in  it  several  casements  of  cloudy  glass 
through  which  one  could  vaguely  make  out  the  outlines  of 
people  who  came  near  them.  I  had  several  times  noticed  at 
those  apertures,  which  were  oblong,  both  figures  and  gestures, 
and  in  time  I  was  able  to  understand  that  the  signs  represented 
letters  of  the  alphabet,  and  that  words  were  formed,  and  that 
one  could  talk  at  a  distance  :  almost  every  day  I  had  half  an 
hour  of  this  mute  conversation,  in  which,  however,  we  con- 
versed properly  and  decently. 

By  means  of  this  hand-alphabet  I  learned  that  the  Signorina 
N.  was  verv  soon  to  be  married  to  her  guardian.  Angry  at 
the  Signora  B.'s  way  of  acting,  I  went  to  see  her  during  the 
day  in  the  afternoon,  quite  determined  to  show  her  all  my  dis- 
pleasure. She  is  sent  for,  she  comes,  she  looks  steadily  at 
me,  and  perceiving  that  I  am  angry,  guessing  what  had  hap- 
pened, she  does  not  give  me  time  to  speak  but  is  the  first  to 
attack  me  vigorously,  with  a  sort  of  transport. 

'  Well,  sir,'  she  said  to  me,  '  you  are  displeased,  I  see  it  in 
your  face  '  —  I  tried  to  speak,  but  she  does  not  hear  me,  raises  her 
voice  and  goes  on  — 'Yes,  sir,  the  Signorina  N.  is  to  be  mar- 
ried, and  she  is  going  to  marry  her  guardian.'  I  tried  to  raise 
my  voice  too.  'Hush,  hush,'  she  cries,  'listen  to  me;  this 
marriage  is  my  doing  :   after  having  reflected  upon  it,  I  helped 


238         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  x 

it  on,  and  on  your  account  I  wished  to  hasten  it.'  '  On  my 
account?  '  I  said.  '  Hush,'  she  replied,  'you  shall  understand 
the  conduct  of  a  prudent  woman  who  has  a  liking  for  you. 
Are  you,'  she  went  on,  l  in  a  position  to  take  a  wife  ?  No, 
for  a  hundred  reasons.  Was  the  Signorina  to  wait  your 
convenience?  No,  she  had  not  the  power  to  do  so;  it  was 
necessary  to  marry  her;  she  might  have  married  a  young  man 
and  you  would  have  lost  her  forever.  She  marries  an  old  man, 
a  man  in  his  decline  and  who  cannot  live  long;  and  though  I 
am  not  acquainted  with  the  joys  and  disappointments  of  mar- 
riage, yet  I  know  that  a  young  wife  must  shorten  the  life  of  an 
old  husband,  and  so  you  will  possess  a  beautiful  widow  who 
will  have  been  a  wife  only  in  name.  Be  quite  easy  on  this 
point,  therefore  ;  she  will  have  improved  her  own  affairs,  she 
will  be  much  richer  than  she  is  now,  and  in  the  meantime  you 
will  make  your  journey.  And  do  not  be  in  any  anxiety  about 
her;  no,  my  dear  friend,  do  not  fear;  she  will  live  in  the  world 
with  her  old  fellow  and  I  shall  watch  over  her  conduct.  Yes, 
ves  !      She  is  yours,  I  will  be  surety  to  you  for  that,  and   I 

give  you  my  word  of  honour ' 

And  here  comes  in  the  Signorina  N.  and  approaches  the 
grating.  The  nun  says  to  me  with  an  air  of  mystery,  c  Con- 
gratulate the  young  lady  on  her  marriage  !  '  I  could  bear  it 
no  longer;  I  make  my  bow  and  go  away  without  saying  more. 
I  never  saw  either  the  governess  or  her  pupil  again,  and  thank 
God  it  was  not  long  before  I  forgot  them  both. 

After    reading    such    stories    and    looking    into    the 

archives  of  the  'Superintendents  of  Convents/  it  is  easy 

to   understand    that    Pope   Gregory  XIII. 

Rom.  vi.  j6o.         .         .      .  .    .  .  .       ( T  „ 

should  have  exclaimed  bitterly,  1  am  lope 
everywhere  except  in  Venice';  and  more  than  one  of 
his  successors  in  the  eighteenth  century  had  cause  to 


x  THE  LAST  HOMES  239 

repeat  his  words.  The  Church  protested  in  vain 
against  the  abuse  of  the  veil  by  Venetian  ladies,  for  the 
State  protected  them  on  the  specious  pretext  of  super- 
intending their  morals,  and  the  remonstrances  of  the  popes 
and  of  the  patriarchs  of  Venice  were  not  even  heard 
within  the  walls  of  those  sham  cloisters.  With  such  a 
system  of  education  and  such  examples  the  bankruptcy 
of  morality  was  merely  a  question  of  time.  The 
number  of  marriages  diminished  amongst  the  aristocracy, 
and  when  a  young  man  made  up  his  mind  to  matrimony 
he  consulted  nothing  but  his  financial  interests. 

The  expenses  of  a  fashionable  marriage  were  con- 
siderable. There  were  always  several  festive  ceremonies 
in  the   bride's   house.     The   first  was   the 

r       ,  ,  ,  Mufinelli, 

signature    of    the    contract;     the    second,         uit.86; 
which    followed    soon    afterwards,    was    a    Goldof!l-  vol:  *• 

chap.  xxvi. 

gathering  of  all  the  relations  and  friends  of 
the  two  families  with  a  sort  of  standing  collation,  and 
it  was  on  this  occasion  that  the  future  bridegroom  gave 
his  betrothed  the  first  present,  which  was  generally  a 
big  diamond  set  in  other  stones,  and  was  called  the 
'ricordino,'  the  'little  remembrance.' 

A  few  days  before  the  wedding  the  two  families  and 
their  friends  met  again,  and  if  the  man's  mother  was 
still  alive  it  was  she  who  gave  the  bride  a  pearl  necklace; 
otherwise  the  duty  fell  to  one  of  his  near  female 
relations.  This  pearl  necklace  was  thought  absolutely 
indispensable  for  the  honour  of  the  family,  and  the  bride 
was  bound  to  put  it  on  at  once  and  to  wear  it  till  the  end 
of  the  first  year  of  her  marriage.     Where  it  would  have 


2+o         GLEANINGS    FROM   HISTORY  x 

caused  financial  difficulty  it  was  simply  hired  for  the 
time,  and  was  returned  to  the  jeweller  at  the  end  of 
the  year. 

After  her   marriage   every  well-horn    woman    took    a 

'cicisbeo'  or  'cavalier  servente.'     These  cavaliers  were 

in   most  cases,  especially  at  the  be<nnnin<>; 

Rom.  ix.  13.  .      .  •   ,  11 

or  the  century,  neither  young,  nor  hand- 
some, nor  the  least  lover-like,  though  there  were 
Tassini,  under  exceptions  to  the  rule.  The  choice  of 
'  Grass  1 :  them  was  often  the  occasion  of  the  first 
conjugal  dispute,  and  a  lady  of  the  Condulmer  family 
retired  to  a  convent  for  life  because  her  husband  objected 
to  the  cavalier  whom  she  wanted. 

The   serving  cavalier   accompanied   his   lady   on    all 

occasions,  for  the  husband  never  did,  and  the  two  were 

seen    everywhere   together,    and   especially 

joj^anT'x^';    under  the  felse  of  the  gondola;    for  ladies 

Moimenti,  Vita    never   usec|   tne   gondola   uncovered,   even 

Priv.  ,  b 

on  beautiful  summer  evenings.  And  they 
were  perpetually  out,  so  that  grave  historians  inform 
us  that  they  only  spent  a  few  hours  of  the  night  in  their 
palaces,  and  during  the  day  the  time  they  needed  for 
dressing.  When  required,  the  'cicisbeo'  waited  on  his 
lady  instead  of  her  maid;  her  smallest  caprices  were 
his  law,  and  she  dragged  him  after  her  everywhere,  to 
mass,  benediction,  and  the  sermon.  'The  object  of 
mass  is  to  go  to  walk,'  said  Businallo  in  one  of  his 
satires,  after  saying  that  the  proper  purpose  of  pilgrim- 
ages was  to  make  a  great  deal  of  noise. 

Not  unfrequently  the  cicisbei  were  mere  adventurers 


x  THE  LAST  HOMES  241 

who  pretended  to  be  great  nobles  from  other  Italian 
cities,  and  to  have  left  their  homes  in  consequence  of 
some  misfortune. 

Goldoni  wrote  a  comedy  called  'II  Cavaliere  e  la 
Dama'  on  the  subject  of  the  'cicisbei,'  whom  he  calls 
'singular  beings,  martyrs  to  gallantry,  and  slaves  to  the 
caprices  of  the  fair  sex.'  In  speaking  of  this  piece,  in 
his  autobiography,  he  observes  that  he  could  not  have 
printed  the  word  'cicisbeatura'  on  the  bill  for  fear  of 
offending  the  numerous  class  whom  he  intended  to 
satirise. 

He  goes  on  to  say  of  his  play  that  a  man  is  pre- 
sented who  is  the  husband  of  one  lady  and  the  serving 
cavalier  of  another,  and  the  mutual  satisfaction  of  the 
two  women  is  exhibited.  'A  married  woman,'  Goldoni 
says,  'complains  to  her  cicisbeo  that  one  of  her  lacqueys 
has  been  disrespectful  to  her;  the  cavalier  answers  that 
the  man  should  be  punished.  "And  whose  business  is 
it  but  yours  to  see  that  I  am  obeyed  and  respected  by 
my   servants?"  cries  the   lady.' 

The  playwright  no  doubt  heard  the  speech  in  actual 
life.  The  cavalier  was  the  real  master  of  the  house  in 
many  families,  yet  now  and  then  a  husband  could  be 
jealous,  though  not  in  the  least  in  love. 

Goldoni  says  that  there  were  husbands  who  put  up 
with  their  wives'  cavaliers   in  a  submissive  spirit,  but 
that  there  were  others  who  were  enraged   Goldoni,  vol.  a. 
by   those    strange    beings,    who   were   like        chap.x. 
second   masters  of  the  house  in   disorganised   families. 

It  is  certain  that  the  Venetian  ladies  cared  more  for 

VOL.  II.  —  R 


242         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  x 

gambling  than  for  adornment,  or  anything  else.  In  the 
morning  they  wore  a  dress  of  more  or  less  rich  stuff,  hut 
always  black,  and  when  they  went  out  they  wore  a  long 
scarf,  also  black,  which  they  disposed  with  much  grace 
upon  their  heads,  crossed  upon  their  bosom,  and  knotted 
loosely  behind  the  waist.  1  his  dress  went  by  the  general 
name  of  'Cendaleto,'  and  it  was  the  custom  to  apply 
the  appellation  also  to  those  who  wore  it.  They  said, 
for  instance,  that  there  were  so  many  'Cendaleti' 
at  a  ceremony,  meaning  that  number  of  ladies. 
Giustina  Renier  Michiel,  the  historian  of  all  that  was 
left  of  grace  and  beauty  in  Venice,  says  that  the  scarf  had 
the  magic  power  of  making  the  plainest  women  pretty. 
Though  dress  was  simple  enough  on  ordinary 
occasions,  conforming  to  certain  rules,  yet  on  gala 
occasions  the  latest  fashions  were  consulted. 

A'om.viii.joj.  ..  .  T  7        •         l        l  l        r      1   ■ 

In  earlier  times  Venice  had  set  the  fashion 
for  the  world,  and  beautifully  dressed  dolls  had  been 
sent  by  the  Venetian  women's  tailors  as  models  to 
Paris.  In  the  eighteenth  century  Paris  sent  dolls 
to  Venice.  These  dolls  were  exhibited  at  the  fair  of 
the  Ascension,  near  the  entrance  to  the  Merceria, 
and  took  the  place  of  fashion-plates  and  dressmakers' 
journals.  The  men  wore  the  cut-away  coat,  breeches, 
silk  stockings,  shoes  with  buckles,  wigs,  and  three- 
cornered  hats,  then  common  throughout  Italy  and 
France;  but  they  had  invented  a  singular  fashion  of 
their  own,  which  was  that  of  throwing  a  light  mantle  of 
velvet,  satin,  or  cloth  over  their  hat  and  wig.  It  was 
called  the  'velada,'  and  was  adorned  with  embroidery, 


THE   LAST  HOMES 


^4.} 


lace,  or  a  fringe.  In  the  end,  it  was  sometimes  made 
of  lace  only.  As  the  law  did  not  allow  any  member  of 
the  Great  Council  to  appear  in  public  without  his  toga, 
the  nobles  introduced  a  fashion  which  soon  became 
common  in  all  classes ;  they  wore  a  black  or  white  mask, 


GIOVANNI  E  PAOLO 


and  covered  themselves  entirely  with  a  black  silk  mantle 
having  a  hood,  on  the  top  of  which  they 
placed  the  three-cornered  hat.     This  gar-        Lasieal 
ment  was  nothing,  in  fact,  but  a  domino.     °-  R;  Michiel> 
Of  course  the  women  soon  discovered  the 
advantages   of  a  dress    in  which  they  could  not  only 
disguise  themselves  but  could  even  pass  for  men.     The 


244         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  x 

'Cendaleto'  remained  as  the  proper  dress  for  going  out 
in  the  morning,  but  in  the  afternoon  and  evening,  at 


NIGHT   ON   THE    HIVA 


the  theatre,  at  the  ridotti,  or  in  the  piazza,  the  mask 
and  domino  became  indispensable,  and  men  and  women 
wore  precisely  the   same  three-cornered   hat. 


x  THE  LAST  HOMES  245 

It  was  soon  noticed,  however,  that  the  domino  did 
not  tend  to  improve  the  public  morals,  and  a  decree 
was  issued  limiting  its  use  to  the  period  between  the 
first  Sunday  in  October  and  Advent  Sunday,  and  during 
Carnival  and  the  festivities  which  took  place  at  the 
Ascension. 

The  women,  no  doubt,  amused  themselves  in  various 
ways,  not  excepting  that  form  of  diversion  in  which 
women  have  such  marked  advantages  over  men;  but 
their  chief  enjoyment,  if  not  their  principal  occupation, 
was  gambling.  Games  of  chance  were  played  for  very 
high  stakes  in  the  ridotti,  which  were  gaming-clubs, 
not  much  better  than  the  'hells'  of  modern  cities.  The 
most  celebrated  was  that  connected  with  the  theatre  of 
San  Moise,  which  the  government  protected  as  a  useful 
social  institution.  A  patrician,  generally  a  senator, 
presided  in  his  toga  at  the  tables,  in  order  to  see  that 
there  was  no  cheating.  The  singular  rule  of  admission 
was  that  one  must  be  either  noble  or  masked,  and  the 
consequence  was  that  the  Venetian  ridotti  were  fre- 
quented not  only  by  the  Venetians  themselves,  but  by 
half  the  gamblers,  adventurers,  and  blacklegs  in  Europe. 

King  Frederick  IV.  of  Denmark  once  visited  San 
Moise  disguised  in  a  domino,  and  won  a  large  sum  of 
money  from  a  Venetian  noble  who  was  Tassini, under 
risking  the  last  remains  of  his  fortune.  '  Rldott°: 
On  being  told  the  circumstances,  he  pretended  to 
stumble,  upset  the  table  with  all  the  money  on  it, 
and  disappeared,  leaving  the  embarrassed  gentleman  to 
pick  up  his  gold  again,  which  he  did  with  marvellous 


246         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  x 

alacrity.  The  number  of  players  at  San  Moise  was 
so  great  that  in  1768  the  government  enlarged 
the  place,  using  for  the  purpose  the  proceeds  of 
property  confiscated  from  the  nuns,  which  terribly 
scandalised  the  population  and  provoked  some  bitter 
epigrams.  At  the  ridotto  the  most  illustrious  patrician 
ladies  quarrelled  for  places  at  the  table  with  ladies  of 
no  character  at  all,  and  a  contemporary  observes  that 
in  order  to  pay  their  gambling  debts  and  continue  to 
MuHneiu,  amuse  themselves,  they  were  reduced  to 
wt.54-  the  last  extremity.  He  adds  that  they 
played  from  the  hour  of  tierce,  which  is  half-way 
between  dawn  and  noon  at  all  times  of  the  year. 

In    1780,  when  the   Republic   had   but   a  few  years 
more  to  live,  the  two   ridotti  of  San   Moise  and   San 
Rom.  via.  joj,    Cassian,    which    had    been    protected    and 
and  ix.  11.       superintended    by    the    government,    were 
suppressed,  but  the  only  result  was  that  a  new  class  of 
gaming-houses  came  into  existence  called  Casini,  which 
were  much  worse  in  character  than  the  old  establish- 
ments.    Ruined  nobles  borrowed  enormous  sums  from 
usurers,  and  even  from  plebeians,  sharing  the  winnings 
with  the  lender  when  successful,  and  being  entirely  at 
his    mercy    if  they    lost.     Some   women    kept    private 
Casini  of  their  own,  to  which  they  invited 

Mutinelli,  Ult.  .  .  . 

men  and  women;  and  while  they  played 
at  Pharaoh,  Basset,  and  Biribissi  within,  the  gondoliers 
played   Morra   at  the  landing  outside. 

Venice  slept  little,  and  was  devoured  day  and  night 
by   the    fever   of  pleasure.     The   lighting   of  the   city 


^^■•^W^r^r  \, 


THE   SALUTE    FROM    THE    RIVA 


246 


ala( 

so 

th< 

Pr 
sc 

e 

1 

> 


•JA2  3ht 


" 


x  THE  LAST  HOMES  247 

was  paid  for  by  the  proceeds  of  the  lotto,  which  had 
been  introduced  in  1734.  Goldoni  says  that  the 
shops  were  always  open  until  ten  o'clock  Goidoni.voi.  *. 
at  night,  while  a  great  many  did  not  close  cha*-  xxxv- 
till  midnight,  and  some  never  shut  at  all.  In  Venice, 
he  continues,  you  would  find  eatables  exposed  for  sale 
at  midnight  exactly  as  at  midday,  and  all  the  eating- 
houses  were  open.  It  was  not  the  custom  to  give 
many  dinners  or  suppers  in  Venetian  society,  but  a  few 
such  occasions  have  remained  famous,  and  the  invited 
guests  appear  to  have  behaved  with  as  little  restraint 
as  if  they  had  been  in  a  common  eating-house.  A 
certain  noble,  of  the  Labia  family,  once  gave  a  supper 
at  which  he  showed  all  his  finest  plate,  and  the  guests 
could  not  refrain  from  admiring  the  magnificent 
chiselled  pieces  of  gold  and  silver  that  covered  the 
table.  Suddenly,  as  the  gaiety  increased,  the  master  of 
the  house  jumped  up  and  began  to  throw  the  plates 
and  dishes  through  the  open  windows  into  the  canal, 
accompanying  this  mad  proceeding  with  one  of  the 
worst  puns  ever  made  in  the  Italian  Tassini,  under 
language,  or  rather  in  the  Venetian  dialect:  'Labia: 
'L'abia  o  non  l'abia,  sarb  sempre  Labia' — the  words 
mean,  'Whether  I  have  it  or  not  I  shall  always  be  Labia.' 
The  conditions  of  married  life  in  the  decadence 
were  such  amongst  the  nobles  that  it  is  best  not  to 
inquire  too  closely  as  to  what  went  on.     In    „ 

t  J  horn,  vi  11.  joj  ; 

a  great  number  of  cases  husband  and  wife      Mutmeiu, 

were  like  strangers  to  each  other,  and  the 

children  were  utterly  neglected,  when  there  were  any. 


248  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  x 

When  divorce  becomes  common,  the  family,  which  is 
the  first  of  social  institutions,  soon  ceases  to  exist,  and 
no  country  has  ever  shown  vitality  or  long  endurance 
where  society  was  not  based  on  the  relations  of  father, 
mother,  and  children  to  each  other.  There  never  was 
any  divorce  law  in  Italy,  but  there  was,  and  is,  such 
a  thing  as  the  annullation  of  marriage.  In  Venice, 
between  1782  and  1796,  the  Council  of  Ten  registered 
two  hundred  and  sixty-four  applications  for  annullation, 
and  the  great  part  of  them  were  admitted. 

As  generally  happens  when  a  form  of  government 
is  exhausted  and  is  about  to  go  to  pieces,  the  Venetian 

Mutineiu,  people  retained  ideas  of  morality  longer 
uu.  71.  than  the  wealthy  burghers  or  the  worn-out 
nobility;  the  wives  of  the  artisans  necessarily  lived 
more  at  home  than  their  richer  sisters,  and  were 
generally  able  to  keep  their  husbands.  The  love  of 
pleasure  was  too  universal  to  admit  of  excepting  a 
whole  class  from  its  influence,  and  to  the  last  the 
working  people  seem  to  have  been  very  prosperous 
under  cne  old  government;  but  their  amusements  were 
harmless  and  their  pleasures  innocent  compared  with 
those  of  the  upper  thousands.  The  women  of  the 
people  organised  their  diversions  with  a  good  deal  of 
system,  forming  groups  among  themselves,  each  of 
which  had  a  presidentess  and  a  treasuress,  who  collected 
the  subscriptions,  kept  the  money  in  safety,  and  made 
out  the  accounts  when,  at  intervals,  the  little  fund  was 
drawn  upon  for  excursions  and  parties  of  pleasure,  to 
which  men  were  not  invited. 


x  THE  LAST  HOMES  249 

On  the  morning  of  one  of  those  appointed  days, 
the  women  and  girls  met  at  the  landing  from  which 
they  were  to  start,  all  dressed  very  much  alike.  Those 
who  belonged  to  the  class  of  the  better  artisans  wore 
a  rather  dark  cotton  skirt,  a  blouse  of  scarlet  cloth, 
a  chintz  apron  with  a  design  of  large  flowers,  and 
lastly,  a  white  linen  kerchief  called  the  'niziol,'  which 
was  to  them  what  the  black  'cendal'  was  to  the 
Venetian  ladies;  and  from  'niziol'  the  word  'nizioleto' 
was  formed,  like  'cendaleto,'  and  meant  a  pretty  woman 
or  girl  of  the  people.  Of  course,  when  they  met  for 
a  day's  pleasure  they  wore  whatever  ornaments  they 
possessed. 

The  women  of  the  poorest  class  wore  over  the  dark 
skirt  a  very  wide  apron  which  covered  it  entirely  when 
let  down,  but  which  they  pulled  up  over  their  heads 
like  a  sort  of  hood  when  they  went  out. 

The  fathers,  husbands,  and  brothers  of  the  women 
came  with  them  as  far  as  the  boat,  but  left  them  then, 
as  the  people  would  have  thought  it  highly 
improper  that  decent  women  should  amuse 
themselves  in  the  company  of  the  other  sex.  Yet  for 
their  protection  two  elderly  men  of  unexceptionable 
character  went  with  them,  as  well  as  the  necessary 
rowers,  and  it  was  a  common  practice  to  be  rowed 
about  for  a  time  before  leaving  the  city,  singing  songs 
together. 

The  principal  diversions  of  the  day  were  the  picnic, 
which  was  a  solid  affair,  a  dance,  generally  the  country 
'villotta,'  accompanied  by  the  singing  of  couplets,  and 


250  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  x 

the  return  to  Venice  in  the  boat,  illuminated  with 
festoons  of  little  coloured  lanterns.  At  the  landing 
they  parted,  dividing  what  was  left  of  the  provisions, 
lest  anything  should  be  lost,  and  no  doubt  each  good 
wife  did  her  best  to  bring  home  a  few  titbits  for  the 
men  of  her  household,  if  only  to  make  them  envy  her 
for  beinsr  a  woman.  1  find  no  record  of  what  the  men 
did  with  themselves  on  picnic  days,  but  it  must  have 
been  very  quiet  in  the  house,  and  they  may  have  felt 
that  there  were  compensations  even  for  being  left 
at  home. 

Another  time  of  gaiety  was  the  evening  after  a 
regatta.  Then  the  houses  of  the  winners  were  decked 
with  garlands  of  green,  and  the  doors  were  open  to 
every  friend ;  the  silk  flag,  which  was  the  token  of 
victory,  was  hung  in  a  conspicuous  place  for  all  visitors 
Moimenti,  Nuovi  to  admire,  and  when  it  grew  late  they  all 

studi,3i8.  sat  down  to  a  plentiful  supper,  which  on 
those  occasions  generally  consisted  principally  of  several 
dishes  of  fish  washed  down  with  copious  draughts  of 
the  island  wine.  The  last  homes  of  Venice,  in  any 
real  sense,  were  the  homes  of  the  working  people. 

Life  in  the  country  did  little  to  bring  the  members 
of  a  noble  family  nearer  together,  but  there  was  a  good 
deal  of  it,  such  as  it  was.  At  a  time  when  France  set 
the  fashions,  which  she  was  before  long  to  impose  on 
the  greater  part  of  Europe,  every  rich  Venetian  noble 
dreamt  of  making  a  little  Versailles  of  his  own  villa. 
The  residences  of  the  Marcello,  the  Corner,  the 
Gradenigo,  the  Foscarini,  and  the  Pisani,  on  the  road 


x     •  THE  LAST  HOMES  251 

to  Treviso  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Brenta,  were  so 
many  little  courts,  in  which  every  element  was  repre- 
sented from  the  sovereign  to  the  parasite,  from  the 
parasite  to  the  buffoon,  and  the  lesser  nobles  imitated 
the  greater  throughout  a  scale  which  descended  from 
the  sublime  to  the  ridiculous.  The  villas  themselves 
were  often  decorated  by  the  greatest  artists.  In  the 
hall  of  the  Pisani's  country-house  at  Stra,  for  instance, 
Tiepolo  had  painted  a  wonderful  picture  representing 
the  reception  of  Henry  III.   in  Venice. 

In  going  from  the  city  to  the  villas,  people  went  by 
water  as  far  as  it  was  possible,  and  each  family  had  a 
sort  of  light  house-boat  for  this  purpose,  Moimmti,  uit. 
called  a  'burchiello,'  and  fitted  with  all  112,116. 
possible  comfort.  The  travellers  dined  and  supped 
sumptuously  on  board,  and  spent  most  of  their  time 
in  playing  cards;  and  when  the  end  of  the  journey 
was  reached  a  long  round  of  pleasures  and  amusements 
began,  in  which  the  'cicisbei'  played  an  important  and, 
one  would  think,  a  terribly  fatiguing  part.  They 
were  assisted  by  regular  relays  of  parasites  who  were 
invited  for  a  few  days  at  a  time,  and  who  were  expected 
to  pay  with  ready  flattery  and  story-telling  for  the 
hospitality  they  received. 

Eating  then  played  a  much  larger  part  in  what  was 
called  pleasure  than  we  moderns  can  well  understand. 
We   are   ourselves    no   great   improvement       MoimenH, 
on  our  fathers,  in  respect  of  manly  virtue,       VitaPHv. 
faith   in   things   divine,   or   honesty  when    it   does   not 
happen  to  be  the  best  policy;   but  as  an  age  of  men  we 


252         GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  x 

are  not  greedy  of  food.  The  Venetians  were.  Not 
only  did  they  employ  French  cooks  and  spend  much 
time  in  considering  what  things  to  eat,  but  their  dinners 
were  so  interminably  long,  and  the  courses  they  ate 
were  so  numerous,  that  they  found  it  convenient  to  use 
three  dining-rooms  in  succession  for  the  same  meal,  the 
first  being  for  the  soup  and  the  beef,  the  second  for  the 
roast  meats  and  vegetables,  and  the  third  for  the  pudding 
and  dessert. 

The  Venetians  were  near  their  end  when  they  ceased 
to  be  men  of  business  and  turned  into  gamblers  and 
spendthrifts.  All  this  extravagance,  especially  in  the 
country,  led  to  financial  embarrassment  at  the  end  of 
the  season;  and  in  order  to  satisfy  the  creditors  who 
then  appeared  in  force,  it  was  necessary  to  rackrent 
the  peasants  or  to  sell  property  and  produce  at 
ruinous  prices.  In  one  of  his  comedies  Goldoni  makes 
a  ruined  nobleman  say  again  and  again  to  his  steward, 
'Caro  vecchio,  fe  vu  '  —  'My  dear  old  man,  manage  it 
yourself.'  The  expression  was  so  true  to  life  that  not 
one  but  a  number  of  nobles  complained  to  the  govern- 
ment that  they  were  being  publicly  libelled  by  a 
playwright. 

Everything  was  in  a  state  of  decay  already  approach- 
ing ruin.     When  the  Princess  Gonzaga  came  to  Venice 
Archivio  stor.    she  had  such  an  abominable  reputation  that 
selfe's, voLxvi.   no  Venetian  lady  had  the  courage  to  present 
p.180.         ner  to  the  society  of  the  capital.     At  last, 
however,  the  Signora  Tron,  the  wife  of  a  procurator  of 
Saint    Mark,   offered   to   do   so.     She   introduced   the 


x  THE  LAST  HOMES  253 

Princess  with  these  historic  words:    'Ladies,  this  is  the 

- 


P* 


vpfL 


fiiw  -^<»«!      •  '     Wi 


s 


RIO   DELLA  TORESELA 


Princess  Gonzaga.     She  belongs  to  an  illustrious  family. 


254         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  x 

As  for  the  rest,  I  will  not  answer  for  her,  nor  for  you, 
nor  for  myself.' 

She  was  wise  in  refusing  to  answer  for  herself,  at  all 
events,  for  she  was  accused  of  setting  a  higher  price  on 
Horatio  Brown,  ner  DOX  at  the  theatre  than  on  herself. 
sketches.  'That  is  true,'  she  answered,  'for  I  some- 
times give  myself  for  nothing.' 

It  is  comprehensible  that  where  great  ladies  talked 
like   this,    a    burgher   dame   should    have    put    up    her 

Mutinein,  daughter's  honour  at  a  lottery,  for  which 
at.  82.  tne  tjckets  Were  sold  at  a  sequin,  about 
fifteen   shillings,  each. 

The  decadence  was  turning  into  final  degeneration, 

and    everything   morbid    was    hailed    with    enthusiasm. 

Carrer,        Two  lovers  committed  suicide,  for  instance, 

Annait,34.  an(j  immediately  handkerchiefs  were  sold 
everywhere  adorned  with  a  death's  head  in  one  corner, 
and  embroidered  in  the  middle  with  the  lovers'  initials 
surrounded  with  stains  of  the  colour  of  blood. 

The  average  Venetian  lady  was  at  once  ignorant  and 
witty,  yet  here  and  there  one  succeeded  in  cultivating 
her  mind  by  reading  and  intercourse  with  the  famous 
foreigners  who  spent  much  time  in  Venice  at  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Giustina  Renier  Michiel 
was  undoubtedly  the  most  remarkable  and  admirable 
Venetian  woman  of  her  times.  She  was  born  in  1755, 
the  daughter  of  Andrea  Renier,  afterwards  Doge,  and 
the  niece  of  Marco  Foscarini.  At  the  age  of  three  she 
was  sent  to  a  convent  of  Capuchin  nuns  at  Treviso;  at 
nine  she  was  brought  back  to  Venice  and  placed  in  a 


x  THE   LAST  GREAT   LADY  255 

fashionable  boarding-school  kept  by  a  Frenchwoman, 
where  she  learned  French  badly,  and  Italian  not  at  all. 
But  the  girl  was  a  born  bookworm,  and  even  in  her 
school  succeeded  in  reading  a  vast  number  of  books, 
and  in  filling  her  girlish  imagination  with  a  vast  store  <>l 
ideals.  She  naturally  hated  complication  and  prejudice, 
and  aspired  to  be  simple  and  just.  Like  many  women 
of  independent  mind,  she  could  not  help  associating 
dress  with  moral  qualities  and  defects;  and  when  she 
was  old  enough  to  please  herself,  she  always  wore  a  long 
straight  garment  of  woollen  or  white  linen,  according  to 
the  season,  and  adorned  her  beautiful  hair  with  a  crown 
of  roses.  Such  a  costume  might  surprise  us  nowadays, 
but  she  loved  flowers,  and  deemed  that  to  wear  them 
brought  her  nearer  to  nature.  If  she  was  obliged  to 
wear  fashionable  clothes  for  some  public  occasion,  she 
spoke  of  them  as  a  disguise,  and  hastened  to  'take  off 
her  mask  and  domino,'  as  she  expressed  it,  as  soon  as 
she  reached  home.  '  Moliere  may  say  that  a  Countess 
is  certainly  something,'  she  wrote  in  French  to  a  friend ; 
'  he  should  have  written  that  a  Countess  is  very  little,  or 
a  Count  either!'  She  often  used  to  say:  'I  should 
like  to  know  why  every  one  does  not  try  to  please 
me,  since  it  would  take  so  little  to  succeed!'  One 
of  her  hobbies  was  not  to  give  trouble,  and  she 
pushed  this  admirable  virtue  so  far  that  one  day, 
when  her  frock  caught  fire,  she  would  not  call  any 
one,  but  rolled  herself  on  the  carpet  till  the  flames  were 
extinguished. 

She  had  a  great  admiration  for  the  Cavalier  Giusti- 


256         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  x 

niani,  the  same  who  faced  Bonaparte  so  bravely  a  few 
years  later,  but  she  did  not  marry  him. 

She  is  said  to  have  been  very  beautiful,  but  short, 
a  fact  which  disturbed  her  unnecessarily,  to  judge  by  a 
note  found  in  one  of  the  commonplace  books  in  which 
she  copied  passages  from  her  reading  and  wrote  out  her 
own  reflections.  'A  monarch  who  was  rather  famous 
in  the  last  century,'  she  wrote  with  child-like  simplicity, 
'forbade  his  soldiers  to  marry  short  women;  on  the 
other  hand,  he  rewarded  them  if  they  married  gigantic 
women.  Can  it  be  because  people  fear  that  short  women 
will  turn  out  more  mischievous  than  tall  ones  ?' 

At  the  age  of  twenty  she  was  married  to  Marcantonio 
Michiel,  and  a  few  months  later  she  accompanied  him 
to  Rome,  where  her  father,  Andrea  Renier,  was  am- 
bassador. She  made  a  profound  impression  on  Roman 
society,  and  soon  went  by  the  name  of  'Venerina 
Veneziana,'  the  little  Venetian  Venus.  In  Rome  she 
met  the  genial  poet  Monti,  then  very  young,  and  recom- 
mended to  the  Venetian  ambassador  by  Cardinal 
Braschi.  To  fill  her  idle  hours,  the  industrious  little 
lady  studied  engraving  on  wood. 

Not  long  after  her  return  from  Rome  her  paternal 
uncle  was  elected  Doge.  He  was  not  a  very  estimable 
personage,  and  as  he  had  married  a  dancer  whom  the 
people  refused  to  accept  as  the  Dogess,  his  niece  Giustina 
did  the  honours  of  the  ducal  palace  when  occasion 
required. 

In  her  early  youth  she  began  several  literary  works, 
among  which  a  rather  inaccurate  translation  of  some  of 


x  THE  LAST  GREAT  LADY  257 

Shakespeare's  plays  has  come  down  to  us.  She  was  a 
literary  personage,  however,  when  still  young,  and  the 
drawing-rooms  of  the  Palazzo  Michiel  were  frequented 
by  all  that  was  most  distinguished  in  Venice,  as  well  as 
by  the  best  of  the  foreign  element.  Giustina,  like  all 
women  whosucceed  ingathering  intellectual  people  about 
them,  encouraged  the  discussion  of  all  sorts  of  subjects 
from  the  broadest  point  of  view.  At  that  time  she  was 
slightly  inclined  towards  the  new  order  of  ideas,  and 
boasted  of  being  somewhat  democratic;  but  if  this  was 
true,  it  did  not  prevent  her  from  sincerely  lamenting 
the  fall  of  the  Republic  a  few  years  later. 

On  the  twelfth  of  May  1797,  after  the  fatal 
session  which  ended  the  history  of  Venice,  a  few  nobles 
gathered  at  her  house  to  mourn  over  the  sudden  end. 
While  they  sat  together,  heavy-hearted  and  conversing 
in  broken  sentences,  they  heard  the  rabble  in  the  street 
'  below,  howling  at  those  whom  it  called  the  assassins  of 
Saint  Mark.  The  little  group  upstairs  understood  the 
danger,  and  after  a  moment's  silence  Giustina  called 
upon  them  to  save  the  city  at  least,  if  they  could  no 
longer  save  the  Republic.  Her  cousin  Bernardino 
Renier  was  there,  and  was  temporarily  charged  with 
seeing  to  the  safety  of  the  city.  The  only  means  he 
could  think  of  for  preventing  pillage  was  violence,  and 
he  swept  the  streets  with  artillery. 

For  a  while  Giustina  cherished  the  vain  hope  that 
Bonaparte  would  help  Venice  to  rise  from  her  ashes. 
That  fact  explains  why  she  was  willing  to  receive  in  her 
house  the  handsome,  fair-haired  Marina  Benzon,  who 

VOL.    II.  —  S 


258  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  x 

danced  round  the  tree  of  liberty  in  the  Square  of  Saint 
Mark's  with  the  '  Carmagnola'  on  her  head,  on  the  day 
that  saw  the  Venetian  flag  replaced  by  the  Phrygian 
cap  of  liberty.  It  explains,  too,  why  Giustina  was  in 
the  square  ten  years  later,  when  Napoleon 
came  to  Venice  a  second  time.  It  was  a 
singular  meeting  enough. 

When  the  Emperor  was  passing  his  troops  in  review 
in  the  square,  Bernardino  Renier  pointed  out  his  cousin 
Giustina,  who  was  in  thecrowd  looking  on,  and  Napoleon 
at  once  sent  two  officers  to  bring  her  to  him.  The 
story  is  that  the  Emperor  planted  himself  before  her 
with  his  arms  crossed  and  his  legs  apart. 

'What  are  you  celebrated  for?'    he  asked  roughly. 

'I,  sire?     Celebrated?'    cried  the  lady. 

'Yes,  you.     But  to  what  do  you  owe  your  celebrity  ?' 

'To  friendship,  no  doubt,  which  attributes  to  me  an 
importance  I  do  not  possess.' 

'What  have  you  written?'    demanded  the  Emperor. 

'  Little  things  not  worth  mentioning,'  answered 
Giustina. 

'Verse  or  prose  ?' 

'In  prose,  sire.  I  never  was  able  to  write  a  verse 
in  my  life.' 

'Ah,  then  you  improvise,  you  improvise,  do  you  ?' 

'I  wish  I  could,  sire!  for  I  should  have  an  excellent 
opportunity  to-day  of  covering  myself  with  glory!' 

'Come,  what  have  you  written  ?'  asked  the  Emperor 
impatiently. 

'A  few  translations.' 


A    NARROW    STREET,    NEAR   THE    ACADEMY 
259 


26o  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  x 

'Translations  ?' 

'Of  tragedies,'  answered  Giustina. 

'The  tragedies  of  Racine,  I  suppose?' 

'I  beg  your  majesty's  pardon,  I  have  translated  from 
the  English.' 

The  eye-witnesses  of  this  meeting  say  that  when 
the  Emperor  received  this  answer  he  turned  on  his 
heel  and  left  the  high-born  lady  standing  there. 

The  final  state  of  Giustina's  mind  was  somewhat 
contradictory,  for  her  frankly  democratic  dreams  had 
faded  away,  yet  there  remained  an  unlimited  indulgence 
for  the  most  contradictory  opinions  which  were  some- 
times expressed  in  her  presence,  together  with  the  greatest 
indignation  against  those  who  judged  Venice  by  modern 
standards,  whether  they  were  Venetians  or  foreigners. 
She  seemed  to  make  it  her  duty  to  prevent  anything 
from  disturbing  the  ghost  of  the  defunct  Republic. 

When  Chateaubriand  made  his  first  visit  to  Venice 
he  had  the  bad  taste  to  write  an  article 
in  the  Mercure  de  France,  from  which  I 
translate  a  few  extracts :  — 

Trieste,  July  thirtieth,  1806.  —  In  Venice  there  had  just 
been  published  a  new  translation  of  the  Genie  du  Christianisme. 
This  Venice,  unless  I  am  mistaken,  would  please  you  as  little 
as  it  pleases  me.  It  is  a  city  against  nature  ;  one  cannot  take 
a  step  without  being  obliged  to  get  into  a  boat,  or  else  one  is 
driven  to  go  round  by  narrow  passages  more  like  corridors  than 
streets  !  The  Square  of  St.  Mark  alone  is  by  its  general  effect 
worthy  of  its  reputation.  The  architecture  of  Venice,  which 
is  almost  altogether  Palladio's,  is  too  capricious  and  too  varied  ; 


x  THE   LAST  GREAT  LADY  261 

it  is  as  if  two  or  three  palaces  were  built  one  upon  the  other. 
And  the  famous  gondolas,  all  black,  look  like  boats  that  carry 
coffins  ;  I  took  the  first  one  I  saw  for  a  corpse  on  the  way  to 
burial.  The  sky  is  not  our  sky  beyond  the  Apennines.  Rome 
and  Naples,  my  dear  friend,  and  a  bit  of  Florence,  there  you 
have  all  Italy.  There  is,  however,  one  remarkable  thing  in 
Venice,  and  that  is  the  number  of  convents  built  on  the  islands 
and  reefs  round  the  city,  just  as  other  maritime  cities  are  sur- 
rounded with  forts  which  defend  them  ;  the  effect  of  these 
religious  monuments  seen  at  night  over  a  calm  sea  is  picturesque 
and  touching.  There  are  a  few  pictures  left  by  Paolo  Veronese, 
Titian.   .   .   . 

Giustina  was  filled  with  indignation  on  reading  these 
lines,  which  were  signed  by  an  author  whose  sentimental- 
ism  had  found  an  echo  in  her  heart.  A  lady  who 
admired  Foscolo's  Jacopo  Ortis  would  naturally  be 
pleased  with  the  Genie  du  Christianisme.  The  attack 
on  her  beloved  native  city  seemed  all  the  more  unkind 
for  that,  and  she  hastened  to  reply  in  a  long  letter 
written  in  French,  which  she  published  in  Pisa  in  the 
Gwrnale  dei  Letterati.  She  answered  Chateaubriand 
categorically,  concluding  with  the  following  words :  — 

I  know  that  vou  have  promised  to  return  here  ;  come  then, 
but  come  in  a  mood  less  sad,  in  a  spirit  less  weary,  with  feelings 
less  cold.  ...  I  do  not  flatter  myself  that  you  will  exclaim 
with  that  Neapolitan  poet  that  Venice  was  built  by  the  gods, 
but  I  hope  at  least  that  you  will  find  here  something  more 
interesting  than  the  convents  on  the  islands  and  the  translation 
of  your  works. 

Giustina  had  been  in  her  grave  eighteen  years  when 
Chateaubriand  returned  to  Venice,  with  a  spirit  indeed 


262  CLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  x 

less  weary,  and  allowed  himself  to  grow  enthusiastic, 
and  wrote  a  beautiful  description  of  the  city  in  his 
Mhnoires  £  Outre  Totnbe. 

At  one  time  Napoleon  ordered  a  species  of  inquiry 
to  be  made  on  the  following  and  similar  questions :  — 
What  are  the  prejudices  of  the  Venetians  ?  What  are 
their  political  opinions  ?  What  are  their  dominant 
tastes  ?  1  he  well-known  and  learned  writers,  Filiasi  and 
Morelli,  were  commissioned  to  answer  these  inquiries, 
but  they  refused  on  the  ground  that  such  questions 
admitted  no  answer.  Giustina's  interest  and  ambition 
were  roused  at  once,  and  during  several  weeks  she 
worked  hard  at  a  book  on  moral  statistics  which  has 
never  been  published,  but  which,  no  doubt,  suggested 
to  her  the  excellent  work  she  afterwards  produced  on 
the  origin  of  Venetian  feasts,  a  book  which  I  have  often 
quoted  in  these  pages.  She  worked  at  this  with  enthu- 
siasm, bent  on  evoking  in  the  minds  of  future  genera- 
tions the  memory  of  beautiful  and  touching  ceremonies 
long  disused  when  the  Republic  fell.  In  that  age 
which  loved  epithets  and  classic  parallels,  the  lady  who 
had  been  nicknamed  in  Rome  the  little  Venetian  Venus 
was  now  called  the  Venetian  Antigone.  Indeed,  she 
made  it  her  business  to  defend  Venice  and  Venetian 
history  too.  But  as  she  grew  old  her  enthusiasm  got 
the  better  of  her,  and  she  wrote  such  terrible  answers 
to  people  who  made  small  mistakes  that  she  could  not 
always  get  her  articles  printed.  In  particular,  the 
tragedian  Niccolini  published  in  1827  a  tragedy  upon 
the  story  of  Antonio  Foscarini,  in  which  he  held  up 


x  THE  LAST  GREAT  LADY  263 

the  court  that  condemned  and  executed  that  innocent 
man  to  execration,  but  by  methods  not  honestly 
historical.  Giustina  was  now  over  seventy  years  of  age, 
but  she  wrote  such  a  furious  article  on  Niccolini's  play 
that  no  one  dared  to  publish  it. 

She  was  fond  of  Englishmen,  and  called  them  the 
Swallows,  because  they  came  back  to  Venice  at  regular 
intervals,  and  she  used  to  say  that  England  seemed  to 
her  the  sister  of  the  ancient  Republic  of  Venice.  She 
had  known  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  when  he  was  a  mere 
child,  and  when  he  returned  to  Venice  in  18 16  his  first 
visit  was  for  her.  I  translate  the  note  she  wrote  in 
answer  to  his  message  announcing  his  visit:  — 

A  message  from  H.R.H.  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  delivered 
at  the  theatre  last  night,  and  saying  that  he  wished  to  honour 
the  Michiel  with  his  presence,  has  filled  her  with  lively  exalta- 
tion. She  much  desired  to  see  him  again.  If  H.R.H.  had  not 
become  the  great  Prince  he  is  in  virtue  of  his  birth  ;  if  he  were 
still  that  amiable  little  boy  whom  she  so  often  embraced,  she 
would  have  let  him  know  by  this  time  that  she  desired  to 
embrace  him  affectionately.  And  indeed  she  might  have  said 
so  now,  since  the  difference  of  ages  is  always  the  same.  Then 
he  was  a  child  and  she  was  young  and  pretty  ;  now  he  is  young 
and  charming  and  she  is  a  little  old  woman,  and  also  somewhat 
deaf.  There  might  therefore  still  be  the  purest  innocence  in 
the  sweetest  embrace.  But  setting  aside  this  jesting,  which  is 
indeed  too  familiar,  H.R.H.  will  please  to  accept  in  advance 
the  thanks  of  Giustina  Renier  Michiel  for  the  honour  which 
he  intends  to  do  her  this  evening,  and  she  is  impatiently  await- 
ing that  desired  moment. 

Though  Giustina  had  begun  life  by  giving  signs  of 


264  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  x 

being  emancipated,  she  behaved  with  the  greatest  devo- 
tion to  her  daughter  and  her  grandchildren.  'I  have 
hardly  any  company  but  that  of  children,'  she  wrote  to 
a  friend.  'I  think  very  highly  of  their  patience,  since 
there  is  between  me  and  them  the  same  distance  of 
age  which  exists  between  them  and  me.  I  find  I 
have  nothing  in  common  with  them  but  the  taste  for 
"anguria,"  and  this  is  a  good  argument  for  the  truth 
of  what  I  say.' 

Her  most  intimate  friend  was  Isabella  Teodochi 
Albrizzi.  This  lady  was  born  in  Greece,  and  was  a 
passionate  worshipper  of  the  beautiful;  her  taste  in  all 
matters  seems  to  have  been  more  delicate  than  Giustina's 
and  her  character  was  much  more  gay  and  forgetful. 
Giustina  lived  in  the  past,  Isabella  in  the  present. 
Everything  about  Giustina  was  Venetian,  the  mantilla 
she  wore  on  her  head,  the  furniture  she  had  in  her 
house,  the  refreshments  she  offered  her  friends;  to  the 
very  last  everything  connected  with  her  belonged  to  the 
eighteenth  century.  With  Isabella  Albrizzi  nothing,  on 
the  contrary,  was  Venetian,  nothing  was  durable;  at 
one  moment  the  French  taste  ordered  her  furniture, 
her  bibelots,  and  her  books,  and  provided  her  with 
subjects  of  conversation;  at  another,  everything  about 
her  was  English.  'When  you  left  the  Michiel's  draw- 
ing-room you  had  learned  to  love  Venice,'  says  her 
biographer;  'when  you  left  Madame  Albrizzi's  draw- 
ing-room you  had  learned  to  love  Madame  Albrizzi.' 

They  died  nearly  at  the  same  time.  Giustina  breathed 
her  last   at   the    age  of  seventy-seven   on   April   sixth, 


x  THE   LAST  GREAT  LADY  265 

1832,  surrounded  by  her  grandchildren  and  her  friends. 
Andrea  Maffei  wrote  that  the  death  of  Giustina  Michiel 
was  indeed  a  public  loss.  'To  the  excellence  of  her 
mind  she  united  in  a  high  degree  the  beauty  of  her 
character,  and  I  know  of  no  writer  who  more  dearly 
loved  his  country  than  she.' 


GRAND   CANAL 


XI 


THE  LAST  CARNIVALS  —  THE    LAST   FAIRS 
THE  LAST   FEASTS 


No  people  ever  combined  business  with  pleasure,  so 
advantageously  as  the  Venetians,  and  few  governments 
have  understood  as  well  as  theirs  how  to  make  use  of 
amusement  in  managing  the  people;  indeed,  the  method 
was  so  convenient  that  at  last  the  Signory  preferred 
it  to  all  others,  and  took  most  pains  to  promote  the 

266 


xi  THE  LAST  FAIRS  267 

public  gaiety  just  when  the  Republic  was  on  the  verge 
of   dissolution.     There    is    something    un- 

I    •  1  L  1  J       K0'"-  **'  2lJ- 

natural  in  the  contrast  between  the  outward 
life  and  the  inward  death  of  Venice  in  those  last  years; 
something  that  reminds  one  of  the  strangest  tales  ever 
told  by  Hoffmann  or  Edgar  Poe. 

Never  dull,  even  at  the  last,  all  Venice  went  mad  with 
delight  at  the  feast  of  the  Ascension,  when  the  great  fair 
was  held.     It  will  be  remembered  that  Pope 

.    .  JI77- 

Alexander  III.,  on  the  occasion  of  his  visit 
to  Venice,  issued  a  brief  granting  numerous  indulgences 
to  all  persons  who  would  pray  in  the  basilica  of 
Saint  Mark  between  the  hour  of  Vespers  on  the  eve  of 
Ascension  Day  and  Vespers  on  the  day  itself;  and  the 
brief  concluded  by  invoking  the  malediction  of  heaven 
on  any  one  who  should  oppose  this  practice  or  destroy 
the  document  itself. 

With  their  usual  keen  eye  for  business,  the  Venetians 
saw  at  once  that  while  their  souls  were  profiting  by  the 
much-needed  indulgence,  their  pockets  could  be  con- 
veniently filled  without  vitiating  that  state  of  grace 
which  is  especially  necessary  during  such  religious 
exercises.  Many  strangers  from  the  mainland  would 
visit  the  city  on  the  anniversary,  and  by  holding  out  a 
rational  and  sufficient  inducement  they  could  be  made 
to  come  again,  in  greater  numbers,  year  after  year. 
Nothing  was  so  sure  to  attract  a  rich  class  of  pilgrims 
as  a  great  annual  fair,  and  to  make  their  coming  abso- 
lutely certain  it  was  only  necessary  to  suspend  the 
duties  on  imported  wares  during  eight  days. 


268         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xi 

The  first  Ascension  Fair  was  held  in  the  year  11S0, 
when  Orio  Mastropiero  was  Doge,  and  it  was  a  vast 
financial  and  popular  success.  Merchants  of  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth  spread  out  their  merchandise 
for  sale  in  booths  and  tents,  and  under  every  sort  of 
improvised  shelter.  For  more  than  a  week  the  Square 
of  Saint  Mark's  was  a  vast  bazaar  of  little  shops, 
following  the  most  irregular  and  winding  lanes,  just  wide 
enough  for  two  persons.  Every  merchant,  foreign  or 
Venetian,  was  free  to  set  up  his  booth  as  he  pleased  and 
where  he  pleased,  and  there  were  thousands  of  them,  in 
each  of  which  at  least  one  person  had  to  sleep  at  night. 
The  effect  of  it  all  must  have  been  vastly  picturesque, 
as  many  things  were  when  effect  was  never  thought  of. 
The  annual  fair  was  held  in  this  same  way  for  about 
five  hundred  years,  during  which  time  it  did  not  occur 
to  any  of  the  Signory  that  the  contrast  between  the 
amazing  irregularity  of  the  bazaar  and  the  solemn  sym- 
metry of  the  surrounding  architecture  was  disagreeable. 
Then  in  the  Barocco  age  came  artificial 
taste  and  set  things  to  rights,  and  the  Senate 
issued  a  decree  ordering  that  the  -shops  should  be  set 
up  in  straight  lines,  and  by  squares,  like  Chicago;  and 
it  seems  to  me  that  about  that  time  the  Ascension  Fair 
turned  itself  into  the  first  Universal  Industrial  Exhibi- 
tion. From  that  time  there  was  a  commission  estab- 
lished to  which  all  exhibitors  were  required  to  send  a 
detailed  list  of  their  merchandise.  There  were  no  prizes 
and  no  medals,  yet  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  the  result 
was   much  the  same,  and  that  certain  houses  of  mer- 


xi  THE   LAST  FAIRS  269 

chant-manufacturers  made  their  reputations  and  their 
fortunes  on  the  strength  of  the  impression  they  created 
at  the  Venetian   Fair. 

It  was  destined  to  be  still  more  like  a  modern 
exhibition.  In  1776  the  Signory  commissioned  an 
architect  to  put  up  a  vast  oval  building  of  wood,  like  a 
double  portico,  looking  both  inwards  and  outwards,  and 
almost  filling  the  Square  of  Saint  Mark's.  It  was  very 
practically  arranged,  for  to  those  who  sold  the  more 
valuable  objects  shops  were  assigned  on  the  inside  of 
the  oval,  where  they  were  better  protected,  and  the  shops 
on  the  outside,  facing  the  porticoes  of  the  Procuratie, 
were  filled  with  the  more  ordinary  wares,  which  would 
naturally  attract  more  buyers  from  the  lower  classes. 

On   this    occasion    painters    and    sculptors    exhibited 
their  work,  and  Canova,  who  was  then  but  nineteen 
years   old,   is   said  to  have  shown  one  of    G.R.Mickiei, 
his  earliest  groups.     But  we  learn  without       voi.i.279. 
surprise  that  the  products  offered  for  sale  by  Venetians 
were   of  inferior   quality,    and    that   there    Marble  Group, 

bj  1  ..11  Daedalus  and 

ad    contrast    between    the    showy    Icarus  Accade. 

architectural  shops  and  the  poor  wares  mia,RoomXVU, 
they  contained.  The  end  was  at  hand,  and  Venetian 
manufacture  was  dead. 

But  the  people  cared  not  for  that,  and  wrere  as  gay 
and  happy  over  the  Fair  as  their  ancestors  had  been 
hundreds  of  years  ago.  It  mattered  nothing  to  them; 
if  the  wares  were  poor,  the  charlatans  who  cried  them 
up  were  wittier  than  ever.  There  was  one  in  particu- 
lar, a  certain  Doctor  Buonafede  Vitali  of  Parma,  who 


270         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xi 

employed  four  celebrated  actors,  one  of  whom  was 
Rubini,  famous  in  Goldoni's  companies;  tliey  were 
dressed  in  the  four  Italian  theatrical  masks,  and  by  their 
clever  improvisations  and  witty  sallies  they  advertised 
the  doctor's  miracles,  and  amused  the  clients  that  waited 
to  be  cured  by  him. 

There  were  professional  jesters,  too,  who  joked  on 
their  own  account,  and  there  was  usually  somewhere 
a  black  African  buffoon-contortionist;  and  there  were 
long-legged  tumblers,  called  'guaghe,'  absurdly  dressed 
as  women,  who  kept  the  crowd  laughing,  and  while  the 
people  looked  on  they  chewed  the  pods  of  carobs,  which 
were  sold  off  trays  with  nuts  and  other  things  by  the 
Armenians  who  moved  about  in  the  throng.  In  the 
motley   multitude   nobles   and   magistrates 

Mutinelli,  Ult.  .      r  .  .  ,,  ,  , 

and  foreign  ambassadors  elbowed  each 
other,  and  great  ladies  and  light  ladies,  all  effectually 
disguised  under  the  'tabarro,'  the  'bauta,'  and  the 
mask,  which  were  allowed  in  public  during  the  Fair. 

The  Espousal  of  the  Sea  was  the  great  ceremony  of 
the  week,  and  the  one  which  most  directly  recalled  the 
visit  of  Alexander  III.  It  was  last  performed  by  the 
last  Doge  in  1796,  the  six-hundred-and-eighteenth  time, 
I  believe,  since  its  institution,  and  all  the  ancient  cere- 
monial was  carefully  followed. 

On  the  eve  of  the  Ascension,  the  Bucentaur  was 
hauled  out  of  the  Arsenal  and  anchored  off  the  Piazzetta 

Mutineiu,       m  full  view  of  the   delighted   population. 

LessUo.        jt  was  no  ]onger  the  'Busus  aureus,'  built 

by  the  Senate  in  131 1,  and  towed  by  a  small  boat  from 


XI 


THE   LAST   FAIRS 


271 


Murano,  called  the  'peota.'     In  four  hundred  years  new 
ones  had  been  constructed  several  times,  and  the  last 


«;■ 


K'i*    lr  *    *^  j  ^    i  1  'i'Is    A  '-   '  '  '  l^~    1        all  wff      I  .     -    fit  n" 


«*  S*P 


f 


CHURCH   OF  THE    MIRACLE 


Bucentaur  was  built  in  1728.     It  was  about  one  hundred 
and  fifteen  feet  over  all,  with  twenty-two  feet  beam, 


272         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xi 

and  was  twenty-six  feet  deep  from  upper  poop-deck  to 

keel.  In  length  and  beam  it  had  therefore  about  the 
dimensions  of  a  fair-sized  schooner  yacht,  but  it  was 
vastly  higher  out  of  water,  and  was  flat-bottomed,  so  as 
to  draw  very  little.  The  consequence  was  that  even  in 
smooth  water  it  might  have  been  laid  over  by  a  squall, 
and  it  was  never  used  except  in  absolutely  fine  weather. 
It  w7as  rowed  by  one  hundred  and  seventy-eight  free 
artisans  from  the  Arsenal,  who  swung  forty-two  oars, 
each  of  which,  however,  according  to  the  model  now 
preserved,  consisted  of  three,  linked  and  swung  together 
in  one  rowlock.  The  rowers  occupied  what  we  should 
call  the  main  deck,  and  the  upper  deck  was  fitted  up 
G.R.MicMei,  as  one  l°ng  cabin  or  saloon,  taking  the 
Origim,t.ii)j.  wnoie  length  of  the  vessel,  but  rising  by  a 
step  at  the  after  end,  and  having  a  small  window  at  the 
stern  from  which  the  Doge  threw  out  the  ring  in  the 
course  of  the  ceremony.  His  throne  was  further  raised 
by  two  steps.  Over  the  cabin  were  spread  enormous 
draperies  of  crimson  velvet,  ornamented  with  gold 
fringe,  gold  lace,  and  gold  tassels.  In  the  stern,  within 
the  cabin,  was  figured  a  marine  Victory  with  appropriate 
trophies,  and  two  carved  babies,  of  the  rotund  and  well- 
creased  breed  dear  to  the  eighteenth  century,  supported 
a  huge  shell  as  a  canopy  over  the  throne.  The  fair 
Giustina  Michiel's  description  of  the  decorations  makes 
one's  blood  run  cold.  Prudence  and  Strength  stood 
sentinels  at  the  Doge's  elbows.  In  the  ceiling  of  the 
saloon  Apollo  smiled  upon  the  nine  Muses,  pleased  to 
consider  the  Bucentaur  as  his  temple;   the  Virtues  were 


xi  THE   LAST   FAIRS  273 

inappropriately  present,  too,  and  with  more  reason  the 
Arts,  or  Occupations,  of  Shipbuilding,  Fishing,  Hunting, 
and  the  like.  The  saloon  had  no  less  than  forty-eight 
windows,  from  which  the  numerous  party  of  ambas- 
sadors, magistrates,  and  distinguished  strangers  who 
accompanied  the  Doge  could  see  all  that  went  on. 
Lastly,  the  vessel's  figurehead  was  a  colossal  wooden 
statue  of  Justice,  'protecting  goddess  of  every  well- 
regulated  government,'  says  the  lady  Giustina,  and 
therefore  as  inappropriate  there  as  the  Virtues  them- 
selves. 

At  the  hour  of  tierce,  which  was  somewhere  near 
eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  at  Ascension,  all  the 
bells  began  to  ring,  except,  I  think,  that  solemn  one 
that  tolled  while  condemned  men  were  being  led  to 
death;  and  excepting,  too,  that  one  of  lighter  tone,  the 
'  Bankrupt's  Bell,'  which  was  rung  every  day  for  half 
an  hour  about  noon,  during  which  time  debtors  might 
walk  abroad  and  sun  themselves  without  being  arrested. 

Then  the  Doge  came  from  his  palace  preceded  by 
his  squires,  and  the  silver  trumpets,  and  the  standards, 
and  the  bearer  of  the  ducal  sword,  and  the 

M.^,  .  .  .   .  Carrer,  Annali. 

issier  (jrande,  who  was  nothing  more  nor 

less  than  the  head  constable  of  Venice;    and  after  his 

Serenity  came  the  High  Chancellor,  the  Pope's  Nuncio, 

the  ambassadors,  and  the  principal  magistrates.     When 

all  were  on  board  the  Bucentaur,  a  salute  of  artillery 

gave  the  signal  of  departure,  and  the  huge  oars  began 

to  swing  and  dip;    and  after  the  big  barge  came  the 

smaller    one    of    the    'Doge'    of    the    fishermen,    the 

VOL.   II.  — T 


274         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xi 

Niccolotti,  the  little  '  peota '  of  the  Murano  glass-blowers, 
and  the  barges  and  boats  of  the  Signory,  and  all  the 
gondolas  of  Venice,  richly  draped  for  that  one  day.  So 
all  moved  slowly  out;  and  when  they  passed  the  statue 
of  the  Virgin  before  the  Arsenal  all  the  people  sang, 
and  sent  up  prayers  and  invocations  with  suppliant 
gestures  'to  the  Great  Mother  of  Victories,'  and  the 
sailors  cheered  and  yelled.  Then  they  went  on  to  Saint 
Helen's  island. 

There  the  Patriarch  was  waiting  with  his  flat  boat, 
and  the  monks  of  Saint  Helen  served  him  a  collation 
of  chestnuts  and  red  wine,  which,  at  eight  or  nine 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  was  cruelly  ungastronomic;  and 
the  Patriarch  gave  his  sailors  bread  and  fresh  broad 
beans  in  the  shell. 

The  Patriarch  sent  acolytes  to  the  Doge  with  a 
nosegay  of  Damascus  roses;  and  his  flat  boat  having 
been  taken  in  tow  by  the  Bucentaur,  and  another  boat 
in  which  a  choir  sang  the  hymns  composed  for  the 
occasion,  they  all  moved  out  towards  the  open  sea. 

Then,    in    profound    silence,    the    Doge    opened    the 

little  stern  window  behind  his  throne,  and  the  Patriarch, 

Horatio  Brown,  wno  nad  come  on  board,  poured  holy  water 

Venice.        jnto   tYie   sea    anc|   prayed,   saying,    'Lord, 

vouchsafe   calm    and    quiet   weather  to   all   them   that 

journey   by   sea';     after  which    prayer    the    Patriarch 

handed  the  ring  to  the  Doge,  who  dropped 

Carrer,  Annali.    .      .  .  &.  i  i        i      i 

it  into  the  sea  just  where  the  holy  water 
had  been  poured,  saying,  'We  espouse  thee,  O  Sea,  in 
token  of  perpetual  sovereignty.' 


xi  THE  LAST  FAIRS  275 

The  guns  of  the  fortresses  thundered  out  a  salute,  and 
all  the  thousands  of  spectators  cheered  for  Saint  Mark, 
and  all  the  young  men  waved  flags ;  then  the  whole 
company  began  to  throw  flowers,  freshly  cut,  from  boat 
to  boat,  and  the  Patriarch  presented  great  silver  dishes 
full  of  flowers  to  the  Doge;  and  all  went  ashore  at  San 
Nicola  on  the  Lido  to  hear  the  pontifical  high  mass,  after 
which  every  man  went  home  to  his  own  house. 

That  was  the  ceremony  at  which  the  Venetians  assisted 
in  1796,  little  guessing  that  they  saw  it  for  the  last 
time.     A  few  months  later  a  vandal  mob 

Rom.  x.joj; 

beached  the  Bucentaur  on  the  island  of  San        Mutineiu, 

Gtv  it  •  1  •  1   •        r     11    •         Lessit  o  and  (Jit. 

lorgio  Maggiore,  and  stripped  it  or  all  its 

ornaments,  to  burn  them  and  get  the  gold.     The  hull 

was  then   armed  with   four  heavy  old  guns,   and   was 

turned  into  a.  sort  of  floating  battery  and  sailors'  prison 

at   the   entrance   of  the    harbour.     On    her   stern   was 

painted  her  new  name  'Idra,'  the  Hydra,  and  there  she 

rotted  for  years.     A  few  fragments  of  the  old  vessel  are 

now  preserved  in  the  Arsenal.     More  than  two  hundred 

men  worked  at  reducing  the  Bucentaur  and  the  two  big 

carved  boats  of  the  Signory  to  the  democratic  standard 

of  beauty. 

The  last  pilot  of  the  Bucentaur  was  Andrea  Chiribini, 

who,  like  all  his  predecessors,  called  himself 'admiral,' 

and  was  a  ruffian  not  worth  the  rope  with    Mutineiu,  ua. ; 

which  he  should  have  been  hanged  when   Bembo<Ben-  ^s- 

he  was  young.     He  was  one  of  the  worst  types  in  the 

Venetian  revolution;    and  after  living  all  his  life  on  the 

bounty   of  the   Signory,    he   was    the    first   to    help    in 


276 


GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 


XI 


breaking  up  the  Bucentaur,  and  in  sacking  the  Arsenal. 
In  order  to  reward  him  for  these  noble  arts  of  patriotism, 
and  in  the  absence  of  appropriate  funds,  he  was  given 
a  magnificent  carved  jewel  of  oriental  chalcedony  from 
the  treasure  of  Saint  Mark.  The  talisman  did  not  bring 
the  fellow  luck.  After  wandering  about  for  nearly 
thirty  years,  living  more  or  less  dishonestly  by  his  wits, 


THE   PROCESSION    OF  THE    REDENTORE 


he  presented  himself  one  day  in  1826  at  one  of  the 
asylums  for  the  poor,  where  he  spent  a  day;  but  when 
towards  evening  he  was  requested  to  put  on  the  dress 
of  the  establishment,  he  flew  into  such  a  terrible  rage 
that  he  had  fever  all  night,  and  had  to  be  watched.  On 
the  following  morning  he  shook  the  dust  from  his  feet 
and  departed,  declaring  that  a  gentleman  like  himself 
could  not  live  among  such  brigands.  During  two  vears 
the  workmen  of  the  Arsenal  subscribed  to  give  him  a 


xi  THE   LAST   CARNIVALS 


277 


pittance;  at  the  end  of  that  time,  feeling  that  his  clays 
were  numbered,  he  consented  to  enter  the  little  hospice 
of  Saint  Ursula,  which  a  pious  person  of  the  fourteenth 
century  had  founded  for  the  perpetual  support  of  three 
poor  old  men. 

It  is  said  that  the  last  Carnival  of  Venice  was  the 
gayest  in  all  her  history,  and  fully  realised  the  condition 
of  things  described  by  Goldoni  some  years  earlier  in  his 
comedy  La  Mascbcrata.  I  translate  the  couplet  into 
prose :  — 

Here  the  wife  and  there  the  husband, 
Each  one  does  as  best  he  likes  ; 
Each  one  hastens  to  some  partv, 
Some  to  gamble,  some  to  dance. 
Provided  every  one  in  Carnival 
May  do  exactly  as  he  chooses, 
It  would  not  seem  a  serious  matter 
Even  to  go  raving  mad. 

A  good  many  different  traditional  and  legendary 
feasts  amused  the  Venetians  in  old  times,  but  the  only 
one  that  has  survived  to  our  own  day  is  G.  gm  Mkkiei, 
the  Festa  del  Redentore,  the  feast  of  the  »"-j*9- 
Redeemer,  which  was  instituted  as  a  thanksgiving  after 
the  cessation  of  the  plague  in  1576,  and  is  kept  even  now 
both  as  a  civil  and  religious  holiday.  The  serenades, 
illuminations,  and  feasts  in  the  island  of  the  Giudecca 
certainly  delight  the  Venetian  populace  of  to-day  as 
much  as  in  the  times  when  the  old  flag  of  Saint  Mark 
floated  over  everything,  and  the  little  movable  kitchens 
on  wheels  were  adorned  with  the  symbols  of  the  Evan- 


2;S  (CLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  xi 

gelist  prettily  outlined  with  flowers  on  a  ground  of 
green    leaves. 

The  central  point  of  all  amusement  in  Carnival  was 
the  theatre,  for  the  Venetians  always  had  a  passion  for 
spectacles,  and,  at  a  time  when  the  worst  possible  taste 
debased  the  stage  throughout  Italy,  the  reform  which 
has  since  raised  the  Italian  theatre  so  high  began  in 
Venice  with  Goldoni's  comedies.  Properly  speaking, 
there  was  no  dramatic  art  in  Italy  before  him.  As  I 
have  explained  in  speaking  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the 
Hose  Club  founded  the  first  theatre,  but  most  of  the  per- 
formances were  what  we  still  call  mummeries,  in  which 
more  or  less  symbolic  personages  said  anything  witty  or 
profound  that  occurred  to  them,  or  talked  nonsense  in 
the  absence  of  inspiration.  Pantaloon  was  the  national 
mask  of  Venice,  and  was  always  supposed  to  be  a  doctor 
who  became  involved  in  the  most  astonishing  adventures. 
Valaresso,  a  man  of  taste  in  those  days,  produced  a  play 
that  ended  with  a  battle  supposed  to  be  fought  behind 
the  scenes.  In  his  satire  the  poet  makes  the  prompter 
appear  upon  the  stage  carrying  a  little  lamp.  '  Ladies  and 
Aureii,  vita  gentlemen,'  he  says,  'I  see  that  you  are  ex- 
dei Pergoieti.  pecting  some  one  to  bring  you  news  of  the 
battle ;  but  it  is  of  no  use  to  wait,  for  every  one  is  dead.' 
Thereupon  he  blows  out  his  lamp,  and  goes  off  to  bed. 

In  his  memoirs  Goldoni  explains  the  rules  then 
followed    by    dramatic    authors.     He    had   occasion    to 

Goidoni,  i.      learn  them  himself  when  he  read  his  first 

xxviu.  ^  piece,  Amalasunta,  to  Count  Prata,  director 
of  one  of  the  large  theatres  in  Milan. 


xi  THE   LAST  CARNIVALS  279 

'  It  seems  to  me,'  said  the  Count,  '  that  you  have  studied 
tolerably  well  the  Poetics  of  Aristotle  and  the  Ars  Poetica  of 
Horace,  and  that  you  have  written  your  composition  according 
to  the  true  principles  of  tragedy.  Then  you  did  not  know 
that  a  musical  drama  is  an  imperfect  work,  subject  to  rules  and 
traditions  which  have  no  common  sense,  it  is  true,  but  which 
must  be  followed  to  the  very  letter.  If  you  had  been  in 
France  you  might  have  thought  more  of  pleasing  the  public, 
but  here  you  must  please  actors  and  actresses,  you  must  satisfy 
the  composer  of  the  music,  you  must  consult  the  scene-painter; 
everything  has  its  rules,  and  it  would  be  a  crime  of  lese  majest'e 
against  the  art  of  playwriting  to  dare  to  break  them  or  not  to 
submit  to  them.  Listen  to  me,'  he  continued,  '  I  am  going 
to  point  out  to  you  some  rules  which  are  unchangeable,  and 
which  you  do  not  know.  Each  of  the  three  principal  charac- 
ters in  the  drama  must  sing  five  airs  —  two  in  the  first  act,  two 
in  the  second  act,  and  one  in  the  third.  The  second  actress 
and  the  second  "  man  "  soprano  can  only  have  three,  and  the 
third  parts  must  be  satisfied  with  one,  or  two  at  the  most. 
The  author  of  the  words  must  provide  the  musician  with  the 
different  shades  which  form  the  chiaroscuro  of  the  music, 
taking  good  care  that  two  pathetic  airs  shall  not  follow  each 
other.  It  is  also  necessary  to  separate  with  the  same  care 
showy  airs,  airs  of  action,  of  undefined  character,  minuets,  and 
rondeaux.  One  must  be  especially  careful  to  give  no  airs  of 
affection  or  movement  nor  showy  airs  nor  rondeaux  to  the  sec- 
ond parts.  These  poor  people  must  be  contented  with  what  is 
assigned  to  them,  for  they  are  not  allowed  to  make  a  good  figure.' 

Count  Prata  would  have  said  more,  but  Goldoni 
stopped  him,  for  he  had  heard  quite  enough.  He 
went  home  in  that  state  of  mind  which  some  young 
authors  have  known,  and  obtained  a  sort  of  morbid 
satisfaction  from  burning  his  manuscript. 


280  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xi 

'As  I  was  poking  the  pieces  of  my  manuscript  together  to 
complete  the  burning,'  he  savs,  '  it  occurred  to  me  that  in  no 
case  had  any  disappointment  made  me  sacrifice  mv  supper.  I 
called  the  waiter,  and  told  him  to  lay  the  cloth  and  bring  me 
something  to  eat  at  once.  ...  I  ate  well,  drank  better,  went 
to  bed  and  slept  with  the  most  perfect  tranquillity.' 

Goldoni  was  of  the  strong,  to  whom  is  the  race. 
Portrait  of  Goi-  From  the  ashes  of  his  Amalasunta  rose 
d°Tf' ?'„  n"f-l''  the    comedies    that    reformed    the    Italian 

Aluseo  Ctvico, 

Room  ix.      stage. 

The  composers  were  not  much  better  off  than  the 
playwrights. 

'The    modern    master,'   says    Marcello,  'must    make    his 

manager  give  him  a  large  orchestra  of  violins,  hautboys,  horns, 

Teat™  alia       and  so  forth,  saving  him  rather  the  expense  of 

moda,  Benedetto   t^e  double  basses,  as  he  need  not  use  these  except 

Marcello,  quoted  .    .  . 

byMolmentiin  for  giving  the  chords  at  the  beginning.  I  he 
Nuovi  studi.  Symphony  is  to  consist  of  a  French  time,  or 
prestissimo  of  semiquavers  in  major,  which  as  usual  must  be 
succeeded  by  a  piano  of  the  same  key  in  minor,  closing  finally 
in  a  minuet,  gavotte,  or  jig,  again  in  the  major,  thus  avoiding 
fugues,  legature,  themes,  etc.,  etc.,  as  old  things  outside  of  the 
modern  fashion.  He  will  endeavour  to  give  the  best  airs  to 
the  prima  donna,  and  if  he  has  to  shorten  the  opera  he  will 
not  allow  the  suppression  of  airs  or  roundels.' 

The  same  master  observes  wittily  that  the  authors 
of  the  words  to  accompany  this  sort  of  music  generally 
excused  themselves  from  reading  the  works  of  older 
writers,  on  the  ground  that  the  latter  had  not  been  able 
to  read  their  successors,   but   had,   nevertheless,   done 


xi  THE  LAST  CARNIVALS  281 

very  well.  When  the  playwright  or  musician  had 
succeeded  in  pleasing  the  actors,  the  actresses,  the 
manager,  the  scene-painter,  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
company,  he  still  had  to  please  the  Council  of  Ten, 
not  to  mention  the  Inquisitors  of  State  and  the 
Inquisitors  of  the  Holy  Office,  for  they  all  had  some- 
thing to  say  in  the  censorship  of  the  theatre. 

The  infamous  Jacopo  Casanova,  who  amongst  a 
number  of  ignoble  occupations  acted  as  a  confidant  or 
spy  to  the  Council  of  Ten,  called  attention  Moimenti,  Nuovi 
in  1776  to  a  piece  called  Coriolanus,  which  Studt,joo. 
was  being  given  in  the  theatre  of  San  Benedetto.  It 
appears  to  have  been  a  sort  of  pantomime,  which 
presented  on  the  stage  a  starving  population,  a  cruel 
nobility,  the  unjust  condemnation  of  Coriolanus,  the 
tears  of  Virgilia  and  Volumnia,  everything,  in  short, 
which,  according  to  the  scrupulous  Casanova,  could 
pervert  the  Venetian  people;  and  the  Inquisitors 
accordingly  suppressed  the   piece. 

Sometimes  these  gentlemen  shut  up  the  provincial 
theatres  altogether  for  a  time  with  a  view  to  stopping 
the  advance  of  modern  ideas.  Here  is  an  edict  relating 
to  these  measures  of  prudence,  signed  by  the  Doge 
one  year  before  the  fall  of  the  Republic.  The  first 
paragraph  is  in  Latin,  the  rest  is  in  Italian. 

Ludovicus   Manin,  by  the  grace  of  God   Doge  of  Venice, 
to  the  noble  and  wise  man,  Federicus  Bembo,  by      Moimenti, 
his  commission  Podesta  and  Captain  of  Mestre,     Nuovi Studi. 
Fid.  Dil.  Sal.  et  Dil.  Aff.       \Fideli  dilecto  salutem  et  dilectionis 
affectum.^ 


282  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xi 

Seeing  that  the  Austrian  troops  now  coming  down  from 
Friuli  are  about  to  enter  the  Trevisan  province,  to  which  some 
of  the  French  troops  may  also  move,  and  it  being  according 
to  the  zealous  forethought  of  the  government  to  remove  all 
inducements  which  give  individuals  of  the  troops  the  desire  to 
come  still  nearer  to  these  lagoons,  the  Council  of  Ten,  consid- 
ering that  one  inducement  might  be  the  reopening  of  the  theatre, 
orders  you  to  put  it  off  as  long  as  may  seem  best  to  the  pru- 
dence of  the  Hcaus  of  the  said  Council. 

Given  in  our  Ducal  Palace  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  Sep- 
tember in  the  fifteenth  year  of  the  Indiction,  1796.  [I  find 
that  the  year  of  the  Indiction  does  not  correspond  with  the  date.] 

There  was  another  magistracy  which  also  had  to  do 
with    the    theatres.     The    '  Provveditori    di    Commun' 

MutineiH.  fixed  the  price  of  the  libretto  of  the  play. 
Lessico,  •  Teatro:  jt  was  tne  Council  of  Ten,  however,  that 
named  the  hour  at  which  the  performance  was  to  begin 
and   end. 

The  lighting  of  the  theatres  was  wretched  and  the 
boxes  were   completely   dark,   which   appears   to   have 

Moimenti,  given  the  ladies  a  considerable  sense  of 
Nuovistudi.  security,  for  I  find  that  in  1756  the  noble 
dame  Pisani  Grimani,  who  owned  the  theatre  of  San 
Benedetto,  was  forbidden  by  the  Inquisitors  of  State  to 
stand  at  the  door  of  her  box  in  a  costume  which  might 
'produce  grave  disorder.' 

In  1776  the  government  made  an  effort  to  limit 
such  extreme  views  of  comfort  in  warm  weather,  and 
an  edict  was  issued  commanding  ladies  to  wear  modest 
dresses,  with  domino  and  hood,  at  the  theatre.  The 
noble  ladies  Maria  Bon  Toderim  and  Elisabetta  Labia 


xi  THE   LAST  CARNIVALS  Z83 

Priuli  were  put  under  arrest  in  their  own  houses  in  the 
following  year  for  having,  in  their  boxes,  thrown  back 
their  hoods  and  allowed  them  to  slip  down  upon  their 
shoulders. 

The  musicians'  desks  were  lighted  with  candles  of 
Spanish  wax,  from  Segovia  in  Castile.  The  stage  was 
illuminated  by  lamps  fed  with  olive  oil.  In  the  dim 
house  there  seems  to  have  been  a  good  deal  of  rough 
play,  and  the  patricians  in  the  boxes  occasionally  threw 
'projectiles'  —  possibly  hard  sweet-meats  are  meant  — - 
at  the  people  in  the  pit.  The  lights  were  put  out  as  soon 
as  the  curtain  fell  on  the  last  act,  and  the  spectators 
groped  their  way  out  in  the  dark  as  they  could,  helped 
by  the  big  brass  lanterns  which  the  gondoliers  brought 
to  the  door  when  they  came  to  wait  for  their  masters. 

Plays  were  not  advertised  at  all.  A  small  bill 
giving  the  name  of  the  play  and  the  names  of  the 
authors  was  pasted  up  in  the  Piazzetta,  and  another 
was  to  be  seen  at  the  Rialto,  but  that  was  all.  It  was 
the  business  of  the  State  to  provide  foreign  ambassadors 
and  ministers  with  boxes,  and  a  vast  deal  of  care  was 
bestowed  on  this  matter,  which  was  full  of  difficulties; 
for  the  boxes  were  generally  the  property  of  private 
families  that  did  not  at  all  like  to  give  them  up.  But 
the  government  always  reserved  the  right  to  take  any 
boxes  it  chose  for  the  use  of  the  Diplomatic  Corps. 
In  Venice,  the  smallest  affairs  were  always  conducted 
according  to  a  prescribed  method,  and  there  was  a 
regular  rule  by  which  the  boxes  were  distributed.  The 
document  has  been  found  by  Signor  Molmenti  in  the 


284  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xi 

Archives  of  the  Inquisitors  of  State,  docketed  and 
labelled:  'Theatres.  Foreign  Ambassadors.  Boxes.' 
Here  it  is  :  — 

The  Ambassadors  present  themselves  with  a  formal  request 
(memoriale)  to  the  Most  Excellent  Council.  By  the  latter, 
through  a  Secretary  of  the  Senate,  His  Serenity  is  requested  to 
draw  the  lots  for  the  boxes  of  each.  He  puts  into  the  ballot- 
box  the  numbers  of  all  the  boxes  on  that  row  which  corre- 
sponds to  the  rank  of  the  Minister  who  applies,  and  he  draws 
one  number.  The  proscenium  boxes  are  excepted,  and  the  bal- 
cony, the  boxes  occupied  by  other  Ministers,  and  the  one  that 
belonged  to  the  Minister  who  last  went  away.  Afterwards,  by 
the  method  explained  hereinafter,  notice  (of  the  number  drawn) 
is  sent  to  the  Minister,  the  owner  (of  the  box),  and  the  Council. 

When  the  Minister  does  not  like  the  box  drawn  for  him,  he 
lays  before  the  Council  his  request  that  it  may  be  changed, 
and  by  the  same  method  His  Serenity  is  requested  to  draw 
again.  In  that  case  he  only  puts  in  the  numbers  of  the  boxes 
opposite  which  are  free,  he  draws  again  and  sends  the  notices 
to  that  effect,  informing  the  owner  of  the  second  box  that  he 
may  use  the  one  first  drawn. 

When  the  box  was  at  last  drawn  and  had  been 
accepted  by  the  Minister,  the  owner  of  it  received  a 
notice  in  the  following  form :  — 

This  day  .  .  .  (date).  Bv  order  of  the  Most  Excellent 
Savi  (literally,  '  Wise  Men  ')  notice  is  given  to  Your  Excel- 
lency the  Noble  Sir,  etc.,  etc.  ...  (or  Noble  Dame,  or  Your 
Illustrious  Worship,  or  other  proper  title),  that  His  Serenity 
has  drawn  Box  No.  .  .  .  Row  ...  in  the  .  .  .  theatre  be- 
longing to  Your  Excellency  (or  other  title)  for  His  Excellency 
the  Ambassador  (or  Minister)  of  .  .  .,  and  this  notice  is  sent 
you  for  your  guidance. 


xi  THE  LAST  CARNIVALS  2X5 

The  feelings  of  the  box-owner,  dispossessed  by  this 
formal  nonsense,  may  be  guessed,  for  the  indemnity 
paid  by  the  ambassadors  was  very  small.  Mutineiu, 
It  seems  that  even  the  Council  anticipated  Lessuo. 
that  he  would  use  bad  language,  for  the  underling  who 
took  him  the  notice  was  a  Comandator-Portier,  and 
was  made  to  wear  a  red  cap  with  the  arms  of  the 
Republic  as  a  badge  'to  protect  him  against  abuse'! 

In  1 791,  when  a  company  formed  of  nobles  under- 
took to  build  the  Fenice  Theatre,  using  part  of  the  ruins 
of  the  old  theatre  of  San  Benedetto,  they  presented  to 
the  Doge  a  memorandum  concerning  the  boxes  for  the 
Diplomatic  Corps,  of  which  I  give  an  extract  for  the 
sake  of  its  monumental  absurdity,  translating  the  terms 
quite  literally:  — 

The  reverend  Company  of  the  New  Theatre  is  disposed  to 
meet  the  public  commands  with  submissive  obedience,  and  will 
therefore  at  all  times  venerate  whatsoever  Your  Serenity  may 
be  pleased  to  prescribe.   .   .   . 

In  order  to  continue  the  building  begun,  it  is  necessary  to 
sell  the  new  boxes  which  have  been  added  to  those  which 
formed  the  last  theatre,  and  the  greatest  profit  that  may  be 
hoped  for  lies  in  those  situated  in  the  first  and  second  rows  ; 
but,  as  those  places  are  subject  to  the  dispositions  above  alluded 
to,  which  take  from  the  owners  the  use  of  their  own  boxes, 
without  fixing  the  measure  of  the  corresponding  indemnity, 
the  sale  of  those  boxes  would  be  rendered  impossible  in  the 
present  state  of  things,  to  the  incalculable  damage  of  the  sink- 
ing companv,  which  would  thus  see  removed  the  hope  of  soon 
finishing  the  building  begun,  or  else  would  be  put  to  new  and 
enormous  expense  which  would  cause  to  vanish  those  expecta- 


286 


(il  IWIViS    FROM    HISTORY 


\i 


tions  of  profit  which  the  Sovereign  Clemency  of  the  Most 
Excellent  Council  of  Ten  had  benignly  permitted  the  Company 
to  entertain.  . 


NEAR   THE    F-ENICE 


The    memorandum    ends    with    the    rather   startling 
statement  that  the  pretensions  of  the  ambassadors,  if 


xi  THE   LAST  CARNIVALS  2N; 

admitted,  would  cause  the  Company  to  lose  eleven 
thousand  ducats. 

The  Doge,  who  afterwards  showed  small  alacrity 
to  act  when  the  country  was  in  mortal  danger,  was 
apparently  much  moved  on  receiving  the  Company's 
petition,  and  forthwith  summoned  the  Senate  to  consider 
the  weighty  matter;  it  is  true  that  if  he  had  done 
anything  for  the  petitioners  without  appealing  to  that 
body,  he  would  have  been  naturally  suspected  of  being 
a  shareholder. 

The  Senate  decided  that,  without  making  any  change 
in  the  method  of  drawing  boxes,  and  without  prejudice 
to  the  existing  system  in  any  other  theatre,  ambassadors 
should  pay  owners  one  hundred  and  sixty  ducats  for 
boxes  in  the  first  row,  and  that  ministers  should  pay 
eighty  ducats  for  those  in  the  second ;  whereby,  said  the 
Senate,  which  still  preserved  traditions  of  business,  the 
owners  of  the  said  boxes  would  be  getting  four  per 
cent  on  the  money  they  had  invested. 

The  construction  of  the  famous  Fenice  lasted  twenty 
months,  and  the  new  theatre  opened  with  an  opera  by 
Paisiello  on  a  libretto  by  Alessandro  Pepoli. 


i     i 


■ 


■**^iS^«ll 


Yf 


GRAND   CANAL   FROM   THE    FISH    MARKET 


XII 


THE   LAST   MAGISTRATES 


The  philosophical  reader  will  naturally  ask  what 
elements  composed  the  Great  Council  of  the  Venetian 
Republic  at  a  time  when  France  was  on  the  brink  of 
the  Revolution,  and  all  Europe  was  about  to  be  shaken 
by  the  explosion  of  the  first  new  idea  that  had  dawned 
on  mankind  since  Christianity.  I  shall  try  to  answer 
the  question. 

288 


0*  b*M 


J  i  M     j 

•  ess  1  m 


\\\\\ 


S.    BARNABb 


VOL.   II. U 


289 


2qo  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xu 

There  were  three  classes  of  men  in  the  Council :  first, 

the  ancient  aristo-plutocracy  which,  though  with  a  few 

additions  to  its  numbers,  and  though  itself 

Rom.  ix.  7.  .  D 

divided  into  two  parties,  had  on  the  whole- 
steered  the  Republic  through  eleven  hundred  years  of 
history;  secondly,  a  number  of  families,  mostly  of 
'new  men,'  though  they  had  sat  in  the  Council  four 
hundred  years  and  more,  but  who  had  all  been  more  or 
less  occupied  with  the  legal  profession  since  they  had 
existed;  thirdly  and  lastly,  the  poor  nobles  called  the 
'  Barnabotti,'  from  the  quarter  of  San  Barnabb,  where 
most  of  them  were  lodged  at  the  public  expense. 

The  first  category  generally  held  the  posts  of  highest 
dignity,  many  of  which  implied  a  salary  by  no  means 
small,  but  never  sufficient  to  pay  for  the  display  which 
the  position  required,  according  to  accepted  customs. 
The  traditional  splendour  which  the  Venetian  ambas- 
sadors of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  had  in- 
augurated was  dear  to  the  Senate,  and  had  come  to  be 
officially  required,  if  not  actually  prescribed  in  so  many 
words.  These  great  families  had  long  been  accustomed 
to  play  the  leading  parts,  and  as  the  business  spirit 
which  had  made  Venice  the  richest  power  in  Europe 
died  out,  their  pride  was  often  greater  than  their  sense 
of  responsibility.  These  and  many  other  causes  lowered 
the  standard  according  to  which  young  Venetians  had 
been  brought  up  during  centuries  to  understand  the 
administration  of  their  country;  and  the  result  was  that 
they  were  not  fit  to  fill  the  offices  to  which  they  were 
called,  and  therefore  handed  over  their  work  to  private 


xii  THE  LAST  MAGISTRATES  291 

secretaries,  who  were  generally  ambitious  and  intriguing 
men.  To  be  a  member  of  the  Great  Council  had  now 
only  a  social  value,  like  those  hereditary  coats  of  arms 
in  which  there  had  once  been  such  deep  meaning. 
Throughout  ages  the  aristocracy  of  Venice  had  differed 
altogether  from  the  nobility  of  other  countries,  but  as 
decadence  advanced  to  decay,  and  decay  threatened 
destruction,  the  Venetian  senator  grew  more  and  more 
like  the  French  marquis  of  the  same  period. 

In  an  access  of  greatness  Louis  XIV.  is  reported  to 
have  said,  'L'etat  c'est  moi!'  but  the  State  continued 
to  exist  without  him.  The  Venetian  nobles  might 
have  said  with  much  more  truth,  and  perhaps  with  more 
reasonable  pride,  'We  nobles  are  the  Republic!'  For 
when  they  degenerated  into  dolls,  the  Republic  soon 
ceased   to   exist. 

The  second  category  of  nobles  comprised  by  far  the 
sanest  and  most  intelligent  part  of  the  aristocracy,  and 
it  was  generally  from  their  ranks  that  the  Quarantie 
were  chosen,  as  well  as  the  'Savi,'  and  those  magistrates 
from  whom  special  industry  and  intelligence  were  re- 
quired, or  at  least  hoped. 

The  Barnabotti  had  nothing  in  common  with  the 
two  other  classes,  except  their  vanity  of  caste,  which 
was  so  infinitely  far  removed  from  pride.  As  I  have 
said,  they  owed  their  name  to  the  parish  Moinunti,  Nwmi 
which  most  of  them  inhabited.  Their  studt,jos. 
nobility  was  more  or  less  recent  and  doubtful,  and 
almost  all  had  ruined  themselves  in  trying  to  rival  the 
richer   families.     The   majority   of  them   had   nothing 


292         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xn 

but   a   small   pension,   paid   them   by  the  government, 
and   barely  sufficient  to   lift   them   out  of 

Horatio  Brown,  _  J 

Venue,  iog;  actual  misery.  It  was  especially  for  them 
that  the  College  of  Nobles  had  been  founded, 
in  which  their  sons  were  educated  for  nothing,  with  all 
the  usual  imperfections  of  gratuitous  education.  Like 
the  'New  Men'  of  the  fourteenth  century,  they  felt 
that  an  insurmountable  barrier  separated  them  from  the 
older  and  richer  classes,  and  the  humiliations  to  which 
they  were  often  exposed  by  the  latter  kept  alive  in 
them  the  sort  of  hatred  which  was  felt  in  other  parts  of 
Europe  by  the  agricultural  population  for  the  owners 
of  the  land.  Their  poverty  and  rancorous  disposition 
made  them  especially  the  objects  of  bribery  when  any 
party  in  the  Great  Council  needed  the  assistance  of 
their  votes  against  another. 

The  better  sort  of  Venetians  were  well  aware  of  the 
evils  that  were  destroying  the  governing  body.  In 
1774  a  member  of  the  Council  made  a  speech  on  the 
subject,  in  which  he  said  that  the  greatest  damage  the 
Republic  had  suffered  had  been  caused  by  the  action 
of  time;  it  lay  in  the  already  very  sensible  diminution 
in  the  numbers  of  the  Great  Council,  which  was,  in  fact, 
the  government  itself.  He  pointed  out  that  within  one 
century  a  large  number  of  patrician  families  had  become 
extinct,  and  that  the  condition  of  the  aris- 

Cecchetti,  qttoting  . 

Arch.  Ven.       tocracy  must  clearly  continue  to  go  from 

bad  to  worse.     It  could  not  be  otherwise, 

since  marriages  were  yearly  becoming  less  numerous. 

A    family   was    looked    upon    as    a    calamity,    because 


XII 


THE   LAST   MAGISTRATES 


293 


it    meant    a    division   of  fortune,    and    therefore   inter- 
fered   with    those    ancient    traditions    of   almost    royal 


MMm  ■  II  km 


INSTITUTO    BON,   GRAND   CANAL 


magnificence  which  appealed  to  the  vanity  of  younger 
men. 


294  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xn 

The  speech  to  which  I  have  alluded  was  delivered 
not  very  many  years  after  the  time  when  a  number  of 
seats  in  the  Grand  Council  had  been  sold  in  order  to 
meet  the  expenses  of  the  Turkish  war.  In  1775,  in 
order  to  increase  the  numbers  of  the  Council,  it  was 
proposed  to  admit  to  it  forty  noble  families  from  the 
provinces,  provided  they  could  prove  that  they  had  a 
yearly  income  of  ten  thousand  ducats.  The  proposal 
was  energetically  opposed  by  a  Contarini.  If  the  sons 
of  ancient  families  showed  so  little  zeal  for  the  public 
welfare,  he  argued,  what  could  be  expected  of  strangers  ? 
Was  it  wise  to  display  to  all  Europe  the  evils  from 
which  the  Republic  was  suffering  ?  Moreover,  even 
if  the  bill  were  passed,  would  it  be  easy  to  find  forty 
families  willing  to  leave  their  homes  and  establish  them- 
selves in  the  capital  to  the  great  damage  of  their 
fortunes  ?  And  if  they  were  found,  would  their  admis- 
sion not  result  in  impoverishing  the  provinces  by  the 
amount  of  their  incomes  which  would  be  spent  in 
Venice  ?  It  was  luxury  and  extravagance  that  were 
ruining  the  country,   he  said. 

A  lively  discussion  followed.  'Beloved  sons,'  cried 
one  old  noble,  'for  us  who  are  old  there  may  be  a  little 
of  the  Republic  left,  but  for  you  children  it  is  com- 
pletely finished!'  The  bill  passed,  but  Contarini  had 
been  right;  only  about  ten  families  asked  to  be  in- 
scribed in  the  Golden  Book. 

Satirists  and  lampooners  made  merry  with  the 
proceedings  of  the  Great  Council.  After  the  stormy 
sittings    just    referred    to,    the    caricatures    of  the    five 


xii  THE  LAST  MAGISTRATES  295 

patricians  entrusted  with  framing  measures  of  reform 
were  to  be  seen  everywhere  in  the  city,  and 

....  .       ..  T      Rom.viii.2iz, 

a  copy  of  the  cut  is  still  in  the  Archives.     It 

represents  the  most  eloquent  and  zealous  of  the  com- 
mittee, Alvise  Emo,  urging  his  horse  against  an  enor- 
mous marble  column;  two  of  his  colleagues  follow 
him  in  a  post-chaise  and  observe  his  movements  with 
a  spy-glass;  a  fourth,  who  is  lame,  is  trying  to  follow 
the  carriage  on  foot,  and  the  fifth  comes  after  him, 
beating  him  to  make  him  mend  his  pace. 

On  the  twenty-second  of  May  1779  the  secretary 
of  the  Inquisitors  of  State  wrote  to  his  brother  Giuseppe 
Gradenigo,  then  in  France:  'If  these  gentlemen  do 
not  seriously  think  of  taking  measures  to  meet  the 
events  which  are  brewing,  if  they  do  not  introduce 
some  order  into  the  affairs  of  the  army  and  navy,  the 
Republic  will  be  lost  as  soon  as  an  enemy  appears  on 
land  or  by  sea.' 

This  letter  was  prophetic.  The  idleness  and  in- 
dolence of  the  nobility  were  such  that  it  was  hard  to 
obtain  an  attendance  at  meetings  of  the  Great  Council 
or  the  Senate.  The  members  were  accustomed  to  spend 
their  nights  in  gambling-dens  and  cafes,  and  it  was  a 
hard  matter  for  them  to  get  up  in  the  morning.  Their 
physicians  recommended  rest,  which  they  indeed  needed; 
and  as  they  could  not  take  any  at  night,  they  devoted  a 
large  part  of  the  day  to  following  the  doctor's  advice. 
Yet  as  it  was  necessary  that  the  government  should 
go  on  in  some  way,  it  became  habitual  to  leave  every- 
thing to  the  Savi  of  the  Council,  who  on  their  part  fell 


296         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xn 

into  the  habit  of  not  always  rendering  an  account  of 
what  they  did.  By  obligingly  saving  their  colleagues 
the  trouble  of  getting  out  of  bed,  they  made  themselves 
the  arbiters  of  the  Republic's  final  destiny. 

With  regard  to  the  other  magistracies,  a  few  anec- 
dotes will  give  a  good  idea  of  what  they  had  become. 
My  readers  know  that  the  Avogadori  enjoyed  very  great 
consideration,  and  that  it  was  their  business  to  see  that 
all  the  tribunals  did  their  work  smoothly  and  regularly. 
One  of  these  important  officers,  Angelo  Quirini,  who 
was  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
members  of  the  Senate,  exhibited  his  power  and  courage 
by  banishing  from  Venice  a  little  milliner  who  had  made 
a  mistake  in  trimming  certain  caps  for  a  great  lady  in 
whom  he  was  interested.  From  her  exile  the  woman 
wrote  a  protest  to  the  Inquisitors  of  State,  who  did  her 
justice  and  recalled  her.  Quirini  now  lost  his  temper 
with  these  gentlemen  and  swore  that  they  were  encroach- 
ing upon  his  rights.      Just  at  this  time  a 

Rom.  viii.  104.      .   ,      r         ,  5   ,  -urc         \rt    1 

rich   member  of  the  parish  of  ban   Vitale 

departed  this  life,  and  the  sacristans  prepared  to  bury 
his  body;  but  the  deceased  belonged  to  a  confraternity 
called  La  Scuola  Grande  della  Carita,  and  his  brethren 
claimed  the  right  of  burying  him  to  the  exclusion  of 
the  parish  sacristans.  The  Inquisitors  of  State  and  the 
Council  of  Ten  took  the  matter  up;  the  Provveditori 
alia  Sanita,  who  were  the  health  officers,  declared  that 
the  matter  concerned  them  only;  the  elders  and  judges 
of  the  guilds  and  corporations  took  part  in  the  dis- 
cussion, and  a  general  quarrel  ensued,  which  was  only 


xii  THE  LAST  MAGISTRATES  297 

brought  to  a  close  by  the  authority  of  the  Council 
of  Ten.  But  this  did  not  please  Angelo  Ouirini,  who 
violently  attacked  the  Council  and  began  to  give  himself 
the  airs  of  a  popular  tribune,  though  not  possessing 
the  popularity  which  is  essential  for  the  position.  The 
people,  in  fact,  would  have  none  of  him.  One  night 
the  Council  of  Ten  caused  him  to  be  quietly  taken  from 
his  palace  and  carried  off  under  a  good  escort  to  the 
fortress  of  Verona.  The  matter  now  had  to  be  brought 
before  the  Great  Council,  and  a  regular  trial  was  held 
to  ascertain  how  the  Council  of  Ten  and  the  Inquisitors 
were  in  the  habit  of  performing  their  duties. 

t-.       •  ,       ,  ,  r>  .         .  Rom,  viii.  108. 

During    several    days    the    Lorregiton    re- 
ceived  all   the   complaints   that   were   handed   in,    and 
examined  the  archives  of  the  two  tribunals.     Those  of 
the  Ten  were  found  to  be  in  perfect  order,  but  those 
of  the  Inquisitors  were  in  the  utmost  con- 
fusion.    The  whole  city  discussed  the  affair 
excitedly,  and  nothing  else  was  spoken  of  in  the  streets, 
in  the  cafes,  and  in  drawing-rooms.     It  was  the  first  time 
in  history  that  the  tribunal  of  the  Inquisitors  of  State 
had  been  put  under  an  inquiry,  and  this  tremendous 
result  had  been  produced  because  a  little  milliner  had 
made  a  cap  that  did  not  fit. 

Endless  discussions  followed.  A  number  of  patri- 
cians declared  that  if  the  Council  of  Ten  and  the 
Inquisitors  of  State  were  abolished,  they  themselves 
would  not  stay  another  day  in  Venice,  as  there  would 
no  longer  be  any  check  on  the  violence  and  the 
intrigues  of  men  of  their  own  class  :   a  confession  which 


298  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xn 

suddenly    exhibits    the    whole    aristocracy    in    its    true 


lisdit. 


Others   proved   beyond   all   question   that   a   tribunal 

which  was  particularly  charged  with  the  preservation  of 

the   State   from    danger  could   not   always 

do   its   work   with   the   miserable  tardiness 

of  the  other  magistracies,  and  they  recalled  the  many 

Rom.  via.  ij6-  cases  in  which  the  Ten  had  saved  Venice. 

JJ7-  One  of  the  debates  was  prolonged  for  five 

consecutive    hours.     At    last    the    Conservative    party 

carried  the  day. 

The  wild  enthusiasm  of  the  population,  on  learning 
that  the  Ten  and  the  Inquisitors  were  to  remain  in 
existence,  shows  well  enough  what  the  people  thought; 
their  only  protection  against  the  nobles  lay  in  the  two 
tribunals.  Six  thousand  persons  waited  in  the  Square 
of  Saint  Mark's  to  learn  the  result  of  the  contest,  and 
when  it  was  known  proceeded  to  burn  fireworks  before 
the  palaces  of  the  nobles  who  had  been  the  chief 
speakers  in  defence  of  the  Ten  —  Foscarini,  Marcello, 
and  Grimani.  The  populace  then  declared  that  it 
would  set  fire  to  the  houses  of  the  nobles  who  had 
tried  to  do  away  with  the  only  institution  they  still 
feared,  and  the  palaces  of  the  Zen  and  the  Renier  were 
only  saved  from  fire  and  pillage  by  the  energetic  inter- 
vention of  the  Inquisitors  of  State,  whose  office  those 
aristocrats  had   attempted  to  abolish. 

I  know  of  no  more  convincing  answer  to  the 
numerous  dilettante  historians  who  have  accused  the 
Council  of  Ten  of  oppressing  the  people. 


XII 


THE   LAST  MAGISTRATES 


299 


If  the  Council  and  the  Inquisitors  were  in  need  of 
an  excuse  for  occasionally  overstepping  their  powers  in 
order  to  act  quickly,  they  had  a  good  one  in  the  absurdly 
cumbrous  system  of  the  magistracies,  as  they  existed  in 
the  eighteenth  century.  As  a  curiosity, 
I  give  a  list  of  the  principal  magistracies, 
taken  by  Romanin  from  an  almanack  of  1796,  the  last 
year  of  the  Republic:  — 


Rom.  viii.  jgg. 


The  Doge's  Counsellors 

Savi  of  the  Council    . 

Procurators  of  Saint  Mark 

'Criminal'  Quarantia 

'Old'  Civil  Quarantia 

'New'  Civil  Quarantia 

Colleges  of  the  XXV.  and  the  XV. 

Senate 

'  Zonta,'  supplementary  to  Senate 

Council  of  Ten 

Inquisitors  (of  Ten)  . 

Avogadori  of  the  Commonwealth 

Total 


6 
16 

9 

40 

40 
40 
40 
60 
60 
10 
3 
_3 

327 

besides  the  whole  of  the  Great  Council,  which  consisted 
of  all  nobles  over  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  of  the 
younger  men  chosen  by  lot  to  sit  without  a  vote. 

And  these  are  only  the  principal  magistracies.  The 
secondary  ones  comprised  over  five  hundred  officials, 
divided  between  something  like  one  hundred  and  thirty 
offices,  such  as  Provveditors,  or  inspectors  of  some 
forty  different  matters,  from  artillery  to  butchers'  shops, 
from    'Ancient    and    Modern    Justice'    to   oats:     Savi, 


300 


(ILKANINCJS    KROM    HISTORY 


XII 


Inquisitors  ol  all  matters  except  religion,  Auditors, 
Executors,  Correctors,  Reformers,  Deputies,  and  Syn- 
dics; a  perfect  ant-hill  of  officials  who  were  perpetually 
in  one  another's  way. 

Here  is  an  instance  of  the  manner  in  which  ordinary 
justice  was  administered,  even  by  the  Council  of  Ten. 


WHEN   THE   ALPS   SHOW   THEMSELVES,   FONDAMENTA    NUOVE 


On  the  sixth  of  March  1776  a  patrician  called 
Semitecolo,  who  was  a  member  of  one  of  the  Ouarantie, 
and  therefore  a  magistrate,  was  walking  in  the  Fonda- 
menta  Nuove  when  he  saw  a  big  butcher  named  Milani 
unmercifully  beating  a  wretched  peddler  of  old  books. 
He   stopped    and   expostulated;    the   butcher   took    his 


XII 


THE   LAST   MAGISTRATES 


301 


interference  ill,  and  delivered  a  blow  with  his  Hst  which 
caused  the  blood  to  gush  abundantly  from  the  magis- 
trate's nose.  Semitecolo  was  taken  into  a  neighbouring 
house,  and  the  butcher  walked  off. 

Still  covered  with  blood,  Semitecolo  hastened  to  lay 
the  matter  before  the  Council  of  Ten,  demanding  the 


•jVr^JS  ft  $4  ■    ^l^Ifl^^l 


CAFE   ON  THE   ZATTERE 


arrest  of  Milani.  But  Pier  Barbarigo,  who  was  one  of 
the  Capi  for  the  week,  while  sympathising  deeply,  ex- 
cused himself  from  arresting  the  culprit,  on  the  ground 
that  a  detailed  account  of  the  affair  signed  by  witnesses 
must  be  laid  before  the  Council ;  and,  moreover,  the 
Council  was  busy  just  then,  he  said,  owing  to  the 
arrival  of  the  Pope's  Nuncio,  and  there  would  be  no 


302  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xn 

meeting  on  the  next  day.  Semitecolo  could  not  even 
get  an  order  to  have  the  butcher  watched  by  the  police, 
and  the  culprit  had  full  time  and  liberty  to  leave  Venice 
before  anything  was  done.  Note  that  he  himself  did 
not  expect  impunity,  but  only  a  very  long  delay  before 
his  arrest  was  ordered. 

The  public  followed  the  affair  and  was  indignant, 
and  freely  criticised  the  Ten  in  public  places;  where- 
upon the  Inquisitors  ordered  all  the  cafes  to  be  closed 
two  hours  after  dark.  This  was  especially  galling  to 
the  Venetians,  who  were  fond  of  sitting  up  late,  and 
loved  the  bright  lights  of  the  cafes. 

One  morning  a  notice  appeared  on  the  walls,  drawn 
up  in  the  following  terms :  — 

'The  Guild  of  the  Night-Thieves  wishes  to  thank  his 

Excellency  the  "Capo"  Barbarigo  for  having  provided 

them  with  much  more  sufficient  and  con- 

Rom.  viii.  196.  .  r  ....  1    1       • 

venient  means  of  earning  their  bread  during 
the  present  hard  times.' 

The  Inquisitors'  ordinance  was  soon  modified  so  as 
to  allow  the  cafes  to  remain  open  till   midnight. 

As  for  the  minor  courts,  Goldoni,  who  was  brought 
up  to  be  a  lawyer,  says  that  there  were  nearly  as  many 
different  ones  as  there  were  different  kinds  of  suits 
possible.  They  paralysed  each  other,  and  could  not 
have  worked  well  even  if  they  had  been  honest. 

But  they  were  not.     An  Avogador  acquitted  a  man 

Mutineiii       accused    of    theft.     The    Signors    of    the 

Utt.143.       Night  —  the    chiefs    of  police  —  who    had 

committed  the  accused  for  trial  believed  him  guilty  and 


xii  THE   LAST  MAGISTRATES  303 

determined  to  examine  the  papers  relating  to  the  trial. 


w< 


THE    DOG ANA 


With  this  intention  they  made  a  search  in  the  house  of 


30+  GLEANINGS    FROM    HISTORY  xu 

the  Avogador  and  confiscated  the  private  accounts  in 

which  he  set  clown  the  profit  and  loss  of  his  judicial 
industry;  for  he  was  a  very  careful  man.  Surely 
enough,  the  Signors  found  an  entry  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  sequins  (£112:  10s.)  received  for  acquitting 
the  thief. 

About  the  same  time  there  was  a  very  beautiful 
dancer  called  the  Cellini  at  the  theatre  of  San  Cassian. 

Mutineiu,  A  magistrate  who  exercised  the  righteous 
uit.ii/.  functions  of  an  'Executor  against  Blas- 
phemy' became  anxious  to  get  into  her  good  graces, 
but  as  she  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  him,  he 
brought  an  accusation  against  her  in  his  own  court, 
tried  her,  and  condemned  her  to  a  severe  penalty.  But 
she  appealed  to  the  Council  of  Ten,  proved  her  inno- 
cence, and  was  acquitted.  Thereupon  the  Venetians 
began  to  swear  'by  the  holy  Virgin  Cellini.' 

With  such  a  state  of  things  in  Venice,  it  wTas  only 
to  be  expected  that  the  condition  of  justice  in  the 
provinces  should  be  still  worse.  When 
Goldoni  was  Secretary  to  the  Chancery 
of  Feltre,  in  the  Venetian  territory,  there  was  a  huge 
scandal  about  a  whole  forest  cut  down  and  sold  without 
any  order  or  authority  from  the  government.  An 
inquiry  was  attempted  and  begun;  it  was  found  that 
more  than  two  hundred  persons  were  implicated,  and 
as  it  soon  became  apparent  that  the  same  thing  had 
been  done  before  them,  within  the  century,  it  was 
judged  better  to  draw  a  veil  over  the  whole  affair. 

This    naturally    encouraged    others.       In    1782    the 


xii  THE   LAST  MAGISTRATES  305 

Provveditor  Michiel  informed  the  Senate  that  the 
Podesta  of  the  city  of  Usmago  had  calmly  pocketed 
the  price  of  an  oak  forest,  which  he  had  asked  leave 
to  cut  down  on  pretence  of  using  the  funds  for 
repairing  his  official  residence. 

Finally,  a  number  of  posts,  especially  in  the  ducal 
household,  were  openly  sold;  in  the  last  years  of  the 
Republic  even  the  office  of  a  procurator  of  Saint  Mark 
could  be  bought. 

In  close  connection  with  the  magistracies  and  the 
legal  profession  generally,  I  give  the  following  amusing 
extract  from  Goldoni's   memoirs. 

He  begins  by  telling  us  that  although  he  had  been 
entered  at  a  lawyer's  office  for  two  years,  he  left  it 
fitted  for  the  profession  in  eight  months, 

,  ......  .  Goldotii,  i.  23. 

because  the  administration  interpreted  the 
two  years  to  mean  the  dates  of  two  consecutive 
years,  without  any  regard  to  the  months.  Young 
Goldoni  then  took  a  lodging  in  the  lawyers'  quarter 
near  San  Paterniano,  and  his  mother  and  aunt  lived 
with   him. 

I  put  on  the  toga  belonging  to  my  new  station  (he  contin- 
ues), and  it  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  Patricians  ;  I  smothered 
my  head  in  an  enormous  wig  and  impatiently  awaited  the  day 
of  my  presentation  in  the  Palace.  The  novice  must  have 
two  assistants  who  are  called  in  Venice  Compari  di  Palazzo 
[l  Palace  godfathers ']  .  The  young  man  chooses  them  amongst 
those  of  the  old  lawvers  who  are  most  friendly  to  him.   .   .   . 

So  I  went  between  mv  two  sponsors  to  the  foot  of  the 
grand  staircase  in  the  great  courtyard  of  the  Palace,  and  for  an 

VOL.  II.  —  X 


3o6  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xn 

hour  and  a  half  I  made  so  main'  hows  and  contortions  that  my 
back  was  broken  and  my  wig  was  like  a  lion's  mane.  Every 
one  who  passed  before  me  gave  his  opinion  of  me;  some 
said,  Here  is  a  youth  of  good  character;  others  said,  Here  is 
another  Palace  sweeper;  some  embraced  me,  some  laughed 
in  my  face.  To  be  short,  I  went  up  the  stairs  and  sent  the 
servant  to  find  a  gondola,  so  as  not  to  show  myself  in  the 
street  in  such  a  dishevelled  state,  naming  as  a  place  of  meeting 
the  Hall  of  the  Great  Council,  where  I  sat  down  on  a  bench 
whence  I  could  see  every  one  pass  without  being  seen  by  any 
one.  During  this  time,  I  reflected  on  the  career  I  was  about 
to  embrace.  In  Venice  there  are  generally  two  hundred  and 
forty  lawyers  entered  on  the  register  ;  there  are  ten  or  twelve 
of  the  first  rank,  about  twenty  who  occupv  the  second  ;  all 
the  others  are  hunting  for  clients  ;  and  the  poorer  Procurators 
gladly  act  as  their  dogs  on  condition  of  sharing  the  prev.    .    .    . 

While  I  was  thus  alone,  building  castles  in  the  air,  I  saw 
a  woman  of  about  thirty  approaching  me,  not  disagreeable  in 
face,  white,  round,  and  plump,  with  a  turned-up  nose  and 
wicked  eyes,  a  great  deal  of  gold  on  her  neck,  her  ears,  her 
arms,  her  fingers,  and  in  a  dress  which  proclaimed  that  she  was 
a  woman  of  the  common  class,  but  pretty  well  oft.  She  came 
over  and  saluted  me. 

'Sir,  good  day  !  ' 

'  Good  day,  Signora  ! ' 

'  Will  you  allow  me  to  offer  you  my  congratulations  ? ' 

1  For  what  ? ' 

'On  your  entrance  into  the  Forum;  I  saw  you  in  the 
courtvard  when  you  were  making  your  salaams.  Per  Bacco  ! 
Sir,  your  hair  is  nicely  done.' 

'  Isn't  it  ?      Am  I  not  a  handsome  voung  fellow  ? ' 

'  But  it  makes  no  difference  how  your  hair  is  done  ;  Signor 
Goldoni  always  cuts  a  good  figure.' 

'  So  you  know  me,  Signora  ?  ' 


xii  THE  LAST  MAGISTRATES  307 

'  Did  I  not  see  you  four  years  ago  in  the  land  of  the  law- 
yers, in  a  long  wig  and  cloak  ?  ' 

'  True ;  you  are  right,  for  I  was  then  in  the  house  of  the 
Procurator.' 

'  Just  so  ;  in  the  house  of  Signor  Indrie  '  [Goldoni's  uncle]  . 

'  So  you  know  my  uncle  too  ? ' 

'  In  this  part  of  the  world  I  know  every  one,  from  the  Doge 
to  the  last  copyist  of  the  Courts.' 

'  Are  you  married  ? ' 

'No.' 

1  Are  you  a  widow  ?  ' 

'No.'' 

'  Oh  —  I  do  not  dare  ask  more  ! ' 

'  All  the  better.' 

'  Have  you  any  business  ? ' 

'No.' 

'  From  your  appearance  I  took  you  for  a  well-to-do  person.' 

'  I  really  am.' 

'Then  you  have  investments  ?  ' 

'  None  at  all.' 

'  But  you  are  very  well  fitted  out ;  how  do  you  manage  to 
do  it  ?  ' 

'  I  am  a  daughter  of  the  Palace,  and  the  Palace  supports  me.' 

'  That  is  very  strange  !  You  say  you  are  a  daughter  of  the 
Palace  ?  ' 

'  Yes,  sir ;   my  father  had  a  position  in  it.' 

'  What  did  he  do  ? ' 

'  He  listened  at  the  doors  and  then  went  to  take  good  news 
to  those  who  were  expecting  pardons,  or  verdicts,  or  favourable 
judgments;  he  had  capital  legs  and  always  got  there  first.  As 
for  my  mother,  she  was  always  here,  as  I  am.  She  was  not 
proud,  she  took  her  fee,  and  undertook  some  commissions.  I 
was  born  and  brought  up  in  these  gilded  halls,  and,  as  you  see, 
I  also  have  gold  on  me.' 


308  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xn 

'Yours  is  a  most  singular  story.  Then  you  follow  in  your 
mother's  footsteps  ?  ' 

'  No,  sir.      I  do  something  else.' 

'  That  is  to  say  ? ' 

1 1  push  lawsuits.' 

'  Push  lawsuits  ?      I  do  not  understand.' 

'  I  am  as  well  known  as  Barabbas.  It  is  very  well  under- 
stood that  all  the  lawyers  and  all  the  Procurators  are  my  friends, 
and  a  number  of  people  apply  to  me  to  obtain  advice  for  them 
and  counsel  for  defence.  Those  who  come  to  me  are  gener- 
ally not  rich,  and  I  look  about  amongst  the  novices  and  the 
unemployed  [lawvers]  who  want  nothing  but  work  in  order 
to  make  themselves  known.  Do  vou  know,  sir,  that  though 
you  see  me  as  I  am,  I  have  made  the  fortunes  of  a  round 
dozen  of  the  most  famous  lawyers  in  the  profession.  Come, 
sir,  courage,  and  if  you  are  willing,  I  shall  make  yours  too.' 

It  amused  me  to  listen  to  her,  and  as  my  servant  did  not 
come,  I  continued  the  conversation. 

'  Well,  Signorina,  have  you  any  good  affairs  on  hand 
now  ?  ' 

'  Yes,  sir,  I  have  several,  indeed  I  have  some  excellent 
ones.  I  have  a  widow  who  is  suspected  of  having  occultated 
her  monkey  ;  another  who  wishes  to  prove  a  marriage  contract 
got  up  after  the  fact ;  I  have  girls  who  are  petitioning  for  a 
dowry  ;  I  have  women  who  wish  to  bring  suits  for  annulment 
of  marriage ;  I  have  sons  of  good  families  who  are  persecuted 
by  their  creditors  ;  as  you  see,  you  need  only  choose.' 

'  My  good  woman,'  I  said, '  so  far  I  have  let  you  talk ;  now 
it  is  my  turn.  I  am  young,  I  am  about  to  begin  my  career, 
and  I  desire  occasions  for  showing  myself  and  obtaining  occu- 
pation ;  but  no  love  of  work  nor  fancy  for  litigation  could 
make  me  begin  with  the  disgraceful  suits  you  offer  me.' 

1  Ha,  ha!'  she  laughed,  'you  despise  my  clients  because  I 
warned  you  that  there  was  nothing  to  earn  ;   but  listen  !      My 


xii  THE  LAST  MAGISTRATES  309 

two  widows  are  rich,  you  will  be  well  paid,  and  shall  be  even 
paid  in  advance,  if  you  wish.' 

I  saw  my  servant  coming  in  the  distance ;  I  rose  and 
answered  the  chattering  woman  in  a  fearless  and  resolute  tone. 

'  No,  you  do  not  know  me,  I  am  a  man  of  honour.   .   .   .' 

Then  she  took  my  hand  and  spoke  gravely. 

1  Well  done  !      Continue  always  in  the  same  mind.' 

1  Ah  !  '  I  exclaimed,  '  you  change  your  tone  now  ? ' 

4  Yes,'  she  replied, '  and  the  tone  I  take  now  is  much  better 
than  the  one  I  have  been  using.  Our  conversation  has  been 
somewhat  mysterious  ;  remember  it  and  see  that  you  speak  to 
no  one  about  it.  Good-bye,  sir.  Always  be  wise,  be  always 
honourable,  and  you  will  be  satisfied  with  the  result.' 

She  went  away,  and  I  was  left  in  the  greatest  astonishment. 
I  did  not  know  what  all  this  meant ;  but  I  learned  later  that 
she  was  a  spy  and  had  come  to  sound  me  ;  yet  I  never  knew, 
nor  wished  to  know,  who  sent  her  to  me. 


~'v5»*t-»J« 


»u 


RIO  DELLA  SENSA 


XIII 

THE  LAST  SBIRRI 

It  is  worth  while  to  glance  at  the  agents  of  the  police, 
of  the  Council  of  Ten,  and  of  the  Inquisitors  of  State 
Mutineiu,  at  the  end  of  the  Republic.  The  two 
Lessuo.  Councils  had  six  in  their  service,  called 
the  Fanti  de'  Cai,  the  footmen  of  the  Heads,  and  one 
of  them  was  at  the  beck  and  call  of  the  Inquisitors. 
This    particular    one    was    the    famous    Cristofolo    de' 

310 


xiii  THE   LAST  SBIRRI  311 

Cristofoli,  whose  name  is  connected  alike  with  all  the 
tragedies  and  the  comic  adventures  of  the  last  days. 

He  was  a  sort  of  general  inspector  of  freemasons, 
rope-dancers,  circus-riders,  antiquaries,  bravi,  and 
gondoliers,  and  he  exercised  in  his  manifold  functions 
all  the  civility  of  which  a  detective  can  dispose.  He 
was  a  giant  in  body,  a  jester  and  a  wit  by  nature, 
a  combination  certainly  intended  for  the  stage  rather 
than  the  police. 

His  especial  bugbear  was  freemasonry,  together 
with  all  the  secret  societies  which  were  then  largely  in 
the  pay  of  France,  employed  by  her  to  promote  general 
revolution.  A  manuscript  preserved  in  the  Museo 
Correr  gives  an  account  of  the  first  discovery  of  a 
Lodge. 

A  patrician  named  Girolamo  Zulian,  says  this  docu- 
ment, when  returning  one  night  from  a  meeting  of  the 
Lodge  left  upon  the  seat  of  his  gondola  a  piece  of 
paper  on  which  were  drawn  certain  incomprehensible 
signs.  The  gondoliers  found  the  paper,  and  supposed 
that  the  symbols  w7ere  those  of  some  kind  of  witchcraft. 
One  of  the  men  took  the  scrap  to  a  monk  he  knew  and 
begged  him  to  decipher  the  signs,  or  at  least  to  give 
his  advice  as  to  what  should  be  done  with  the  thing, 
as  it  might  be  fatal  even  to  destroy  a  spell  of  black 
magic.  The  monk  told  the  gondolier  to  take  it  to 
the  Inquisitors  of  State.  The  man  did  so,  and  one 
of  them  kept  him  in  a  garret  of  his  house,  to  protect 
him  against  any  possible  vengeance  on  the  part  of  the 
secret  society,  and  Cristofolo  de'  Cristofoli  was  com- 


312  CLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xin 

missioned  to  clear 'up  the  mystery.  On  the  following 
night  he  raided  the  house  indicated  by  the  gondolier 
with  thirty  Sbirri,  and  found  there  assembled  a  large 
meeting  of  the  brethren,  one  of  whom  had  the  presence 
of  mind  to  throw  into  the  canal  the  heavy  register 
containing  a  complete  list  of  their  names.  Cristofoli 
took  a  quantity  of  papers,  however,  together  wTith  the 
paraphernalia  of  the  Lodge,  and  he  afterwards,  says  the 
manuscript,  dictated  from  memory  the  names  of  the 
persons  he  had  seen  at  the  meeting.  But  he  must 
have  made  mistakes,  since  several  of  the  persons  he 
designated  are  known  to  have  been  absent  from 
Venice  on  foreign  missions  at  the  date  of  the  raid, 
May  sixth,   1785. 

Another  manuscript,  published  by  Dandolo,  gives  a 
different  account  of  the  affair,  under  the  same  date. 
It  was  copied  by  the  famous  Cicogna,  and  is  amusing 
for  its   language  :  — 

It  was  the  anniversary  of  the  feast  of  the  principal  Pro- 
tector of  this  most  serene  dominion,  Saint  Mark  the  Evangelist, 
April  the  twenty-fifth,  1785,  when  it  was  discovered  that  the 
public  Arsenal  of  Venice  had  been  treacherously  set  on  fire; 
the  fire  was  eventually  discovered  by  a  certain  woman,  who 
was  rewarded  for  life  [i.e.  with  a  pension]  by  the  public  muni- 
ficence ;  and  by  the  discovery  of  it,  a  fire  was  prevented  which 
might  have  been  fatal  to  a  large  part  of  the  city,  and  which 
was  not  to  have  broken  out  till  the  night  following  the 
twenty-fifth,  but  which  showed  itself  after  noon  on  account  of 
an  extraordinary  wind  which  had  temporarily  arisen  from  the 
east  and  which  blew  with  fury  all  day. 

Such  an  accident,  as  fatal  as  its  prevention  by  the  Evangelist 


FONDAMENTE    NUOVE 


It 


' 


HaMAdUCH 


. 


.'X'? 


•  •  •  ■         • ' 


XIII 


THE   LAST  SBIRRI 


3U 


Saint  Mark  was  miraculous,  not  only  moved  the  public  vigi- 
lance to  guard  that  public  edifice  under  more  jealous  custody, 
but  also  [to  watch]  all  the  quarters  of  the  city  ;  to  this  end 
multiplying  watchmen  and  spies,  in  order  to  discover,  it*  that 


RIO   S.    STIN 


might  be  possible,  the  perpetrators  of  such  an  horrible  and  ter- 
rifying felony. 

In  the  inquiries,  it  was  observed  by  trustworthy  spies  on 
the  night  of  the  [date  omitted  in  the  original]  May,  that  a 
certain  palace  situated  in  Riomarin,  in  the  parish  of  San  Simon 


3i4  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xm 

Grande,  was  entered  from  time  to  time  after  midnight  by 
respectable-looking  persons,  for  whom  the  door  was  opened  at 
the  simple  signal  of  a  little  tap.  Information  of  this  being 
given  to  the  Supreme  Tribunal,  the  latter  ordered  the  most 
circumspect  inquiries;  when,  on  the  same  morning,  informa- 
tion was  given  to  the  Secretary  of  the  said  Supreme  Magis- 
tracy by  a  certain  ship's  carpenter  that  having,  on  commission 
of  N.  N.,  finished  making  a  large  wardrobe,  he  inquired  of  that 
cavalier  where  he  was  to  bring  it  in  order  to  set  it  up  properly  ; 
and  that  he  had  been  told  to  bring  it  to  a  certain  palace  in 
Riomarin  and  to  leave  it  in  the  entrance  (gateway)  of  the 
same,  and  that  he  would  be  sent  for  later  to  place  it  where 
it  was  to  go ;  that  seeing  several  days  go  by  without  receiving 
that  notice,  and  yielding  to  curiosity,  he  stole  near  in  the  night 
to  see  if  the  wardrobe  were  still  in  the  entrance  of  the  palace, 
where  he  had  placed  it,  and  he  convinced  himself  that  it  had 
been  taken  elsewhere;  and  being  displeased  with  this,  because 
some  other  workman  might  have  handled  his  work,  and  guess- 
ing from  a  hint  of  the  gentleman's  that  the  wardrobe  had 
been  intended  to  be  placed  against  the  windows  of  a  balconv, 
and  observing  in  this  palace  a  balcony  of  just  about  the  length 
of  the  wardrobe  made  by  him,  he  tried  to  get  into  the  apart- 
ment above  the  one  where  the  balcony  was  [let  to  some  one], 
explaining  to  the  people  who  lived  in  that  house  that  his  sus- 
picion induced  him  to  ask  their  permission  to  make  a  hole 
with  a  gimlet,  in  order  to  see  whether  his  wardrobe  had  been 
put  up  where  he  guessed  it  must  be  ;  and  that  he  had  obtained 
consent  to  this  request,  because  the  lodgers  in  that  second 
apartment  had  conceived  some  curiosity  to  know  who  the  per- 
sons might  be  who  met  there  only  at  night  time  ;  that  there- 
fore he  betook  himself  to  that  dwelling  on  the  night  of  the 
fourth  of  May,  having  previously  made  a  hole,  and  stopped 
there  till  the  first-floor  apartment  was  opened,  and  he  saw  that 
after  midnight  a   hall   was   lighted   up   which  was   hung  with 


xiii  THE  LAST  SBIRRI  315 

mourning  and  furnished  with  a  throne  covered  with  blue  cloth 
and  with  other  symbols  or  death,  and  here  and  there  were  dis- 
posed small  lanterns,  and  persons  also  sitting  here  and  there, 
dressed  in  black  robes;  so  that  at  this  horrid  sight  he  was  ter- 
rified, and  he  heard  him  who  sat  on  the  throne  say  these  very 
words :  '  Brethren,  let  us  suspend  our  meeting,  for  we  are 
watched' ;  and  in  that  room  he  saw  indeed  his  wardrobe  placed 
against  a  balcony. 

And  that  he  left  the  lodgers  in  that  second  apartment  in 
consternation,  and  he  himself,  full  of  amazement  and  terror, 
and  still  surprised  by  the  novelty  of  the  things,  and  supposing, 
in  his  simplicity,  that  witchcraft  was  practised  there  and  the 
works  of  the  devil,  he  was  scandalised,  and  went  to  the  parish 
priest  of  San  Simon  Grande,  his  confessor,  and  that  having 
told  him  all  he  had  seen,  heard,  and  observed,  he  (the  priest) 
advised  him  to  quickly  lay  before  the  government  all  that  he 
had  chanced  to  see  and  hear. 

The  good  man  did  so,  and  told  all  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Inquisitors  of  State.  A  warrant  was  therefore  issued  on  that 
same  morning  of  the  sixth  of  May  by  the  Supreme  Tribunal 
to  its  own  officer  Cristofoli,  to  go  thith'er  (to  Riomarin), 
accompanied  by  the  Capitan  Grande  and  twenty-four  men. 
Having  entered  that  apartment,  where  he  surprised  a  nobleman 
who  guarded  the  place,  he  (Cristofoli)  discovered  a  lodge  of 
freemasons. 

Emanuele  Cicogna  [the  distinguished  historian]  copied  this 
on  the  twenty-fourth  of  August  1855,  from  two  codices  exist- 
ing in  his  collection. 

On  the  following  day,  the  Inquisitors  publicly 
burned  the  black  garments,  the  utensils,  the  'con- 
juring books,'  as  they  are  described,  and 

JUU         'ri  Mutinelh.W. 

all    the    booty    Lnstofoli    had    confiscated, 

while  the  populace,  believing  that  it  was  all  a  case  of 


316  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xm 

witchcraft,  danced  round  the  fire  and  cheered  for 
Saint  Mark. 

The  persons  implicated  were  treated  with  the 
greatest  indulgence,  and  Malamani  observes  that  in 
the  whole  affair  it  was  the  furniture  that  got  the 
worst  of  it. 

About  the  same  time  Cristofoli  made  a  vain  attempt 
to  arrest  the  notorious  Cagliostro. 

This  man,  whose  real  name  was  Giuseppe  Balsamo, 
was  born  in  Palermo  on  the  eighth  of  June  1743.  His 
youth  was  wild  and  disreputable.  He  tried  being  a 
monk,  but  soon  tired  of  it,  and  threw  his  frock  to  the 
nettles,  as  the  French  say,  in  Caltagirone,  in  Sicily; 
after  that  he  lived  by  theft,  by  coining  false  money,  and 
by  every  sort  of  imposture.  In  Rome  he  married  a  girl 
of  singular  beauty,  Lorenza  Feliciani,  who  became  his 
tool  in  all  his  intrigues. 

The  French  freemasons  made  use  of  the  singularly 
intelligent  couple  to  propagate  the  doctrines  of  the 
revolution.  Pretending  to  change  hemp  into  silk,  and 
every  metal  into  gold,  and  selling  marvellous  waters 
for  restoring  the  aged  to  youth  and  beauty,  the  two 
got  into  many  excellent  houses,  changing  their  names 
and  their  disguises  whenever  they  were  compromised. 

Balsamo  arrived  in  Venice  in    1787  or   1788,  under 

the   name  of  Count   Cagliostro,   and   began   an   active 

Mutineiu,      revolutionary  campaign,  to  the  great  annoy- 

uit.31.       ance  of  the  Inquisitors,  who  fancied  they 

had  suppressed  the  wrhole   movement  when  Cristofoli 

had  discovered  the  famous  Lodge.     He  was  less  for- 


xni  THE   LAST  SBIRRI  317 

tunate  this  time.  He  tracked  the  Count  everywhere, 
but  could  get  no  substantial  evidence  against  him, 
till  he  suddenly  came  upon  positive  proof  that  the 
impostor  had  stolen  a  thousand  sequins  from  a  rich 
merchant  of  the  Giudecca.  And  then,  at  the  very 
moment  when  the  great  policeman  was  sure  of  his 
game,  the  man  disappeared  as  into  thin  air  and  was  next 
heard  of  beyond  the  Austrian  frontier. 

The   chief  of  the   Sbirri    had    better   luck   when   he 
raided  the  Cafe  Ancilotto,  which  was  a  favourite  place 
of  meeting  for  the  revolutionaries.     They   Tassini,  under 
tried  to  open   a   reading-room  there,   fur-     'Ancilotto: 
nished  with  all  the  latest  revolutionary  literature,  but 
Cristofoli  got  wind  of  the  plan,  called  on  the  man  who 
kept  the  cafe,  and  informed  him  that  the  first  person 
who  entered  the  'reading-room'  would   be  invited  to 
pay  a  visit  to  the  Inquisitors  of  State.     After  that,  no 
one  showed  any  inclination  to  read  the  French  papers. 
In  connection  with  Cristofoli,  we  also  come  upon  the 
curious  fact  that  he  arrested,  at  the  Cafe    Tassini,  under 
of  the    Ponte   dell'   Angelo,    a    number  of     'Cafetero: 
Barnabotti,  who  were  preaching  suspicious  doctrines. 
As  usual,  the  poor  nobles  were  the  class  most  easily 
bribed  and  most  ready  to  betray  their  country. 

Cristofoli  was  occasionally  entrusted  with  missions 
more  diplomatic  than  the  arrest  of  revolutionaries.  He 
was  sometimes  sent  to  present  his  respects  to  great 
nobles  who  did  not  guess  that  they  had  attracted  the 
eyes  of  the  police. 

It  was  the  business  of  the  Inquisitors  to  watch  over 


i8 


GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 


XIII 


the  artistic  treasures  of  the  capital.     During  the  last 
year  of  the  Republic  a  number  of  nobles  sold  precious 


*&f*i*'5£5»ti 


'     ■ 


•5?-«- 


$ 


'<:. 


RIO   DELLA   GITEKKA 


objects  to  strangers,  such  as  paintings  and  statues,  of 
which  the  government  much  regretted  the  loss  to  the 


xin  THE  LAST  SBIRRI  319 

city.  A  few  measures  were  passed  for  preventing  this 
dispersion  of  private  collections,  but  it  happened  only 
too  often  that  priceless  things  were  suddenly  gone, 
leaving  no  trace  of  their  destination,  except  in  the 
pockets  of  the  former  owners. 

The  Grimani  family  possessed  some  magnificent 
statues  and  a  wonderful  library  of  rare  books,  inherited 
from    Cardinal    Domenico    Grimani,    who 

statue  of 

died   in    1523.     Shortly   before  the  fall  of   M.Agrippa; 

i        t->  ii-  r        •  1  11  Museo  ( 'orrer, 

the  Republic  a  foreigner  bought  the  statue 
of  Marcus  Agrippa;  the  boat  which  was  to  take  it  on 
board  an  outward  bound  ship  was  at  the  door  of  the 
palace,  and  the  men  who  were  to  take  it  down  from  its 
pedestal  and  box  it  were  ready,  when  Cristofolo  Cristofoli 
appeared  at  the  entrance,  gigantic  and  playful. 

He  walked  straight  to  the  statue,  took  off  his  cap  to 
it  and  bowed  gravely  before  he  delivered  his  message 
to  the  marble:  'The  Supreme  Tribunal  of  the  In- 
quisitors, having  heard  that  you  wish  to  leave  this  city, 
sends  me  to  wish  a  pleasant  journey,  both  to  you  and 
his  Excellency  Grimani.' 

'His  Excellency  Grimani'  did  not  relish  the  idea  of 
exile;  the  workmen  disappeared,  the  boat  was  sent 
away,  and  the  statue  remained.  It  was  destined  to  be 
left  as  a  gift  to  the  city  by  another  Grimani,  less 
avaricious  than  'His  Excellency.' 

In    spite    of    his    good-humour,    Cristofoli    inspired 
terror,    and    his    mere    name    was    often  Moimmti,  studi 
used    to    lend    weight    to    practical    jokes.       e  R,ccrche- 
It  is  related,  for  instance,  of  the  famous  Montesquieu, 


320  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xm 

the  author  of  the  Esprit  des  Lots  and  the  friend  of 
King  Stanislaus  Leczinski,  that  when  he  was  making 
notes  in  Venice  his  friend  Lord  Chesterfield  managed 
to  cause  a  mysterious  message  to  he  conveyed  to  him, 
warning  him  to  he  on  his  guard,  as  the  Chief  of  the 
Ten  employed  spies  to  watch  him,  and  Cristofoli  was 
on  his  track.  And  thereupon,  says  the  story,  the 
excellent  Montesquieu  burned  all  his  most  compromis- 
ing notes,  and  fled  straight  to  Holland  with  the 
remainder  of  his  manuscripts. 

The  Council  of  Ten  and  their  Shirri  had  not  yet  done 
with  the  Bravi.  They  were  numerous  in  the  provinces, 
and  when  they  were  caught  they  were  tried  and  hanged 
in  Venice.  The  'Signorotti'  -the  rich  landowners, 
who  were  not  Venetian  nobles,  but  called  themselves 
'knights'  -were  many  and  prosperous,  and  were  the 
professional  murderers'  best  clients.  Indeed,  the 
Venetian  mainland  provinces  and  much  of  Lombardy 
presented  a  case  of  arrested  development;  at  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century  they  had  not  emerged  from 
the  barbarism  of  the  early  fifteenth. 

The  lordlings  entertained  Bravi,  and  when  there  was 
no  more  serious  business  on  hand,  they  laid  wagers  with 
each  other  as  to  the  courage  of  their  hired  assassins. 
A  bet  of  this  kind  was  made  and  settled  in  1724 
between  an  Avogadro  and  a  Masperoni,  two  country 
'knights'  who  lived  on  their  estates  in  the  province  of 
Brescia.  One  evening  the  two  were  discussing  the 
character  of  a  ruffian  whom  Masperoni  had  just  taken 
into  his  service.     His  new  master  maintained  that  the 


xiii  THE   LAST  SBIRRI  321 

fellow  was  the  bravest  man  in  the  'profession.' 
Avogadro,  on  the  other  hand,  wagered  that  he  would 
not  be  able  to  traverse  the  road  between  his  master's 
castle  and  Lumezzane,  which  belonged  to  Avogadro. 
Masperoni  took  the  bet,  and  explained  the  situation  to 
the  man.  The  latter,  feeling  that  his  reputation  was  at 
stake,  started  at  once,  carrying  on  his  shoulder  a  basket 
of  fine  fruit  as  a  present  from  Masperoni  to  his  friend,  and 
he  took  his  way  across  the  hills  of  Valtrompia.  When 
he  was  a  few  miles  from  Lumezzane  he  was  met  by 
two  well-armed  fellows,  who  ordered  him  to  turn  back, 
but  he  was  not  so  easily  stopped.  He  set  down  his 
basket,  and  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  killed  both  his 
adversaries,  after  which  he  quietly  pursued  his  journey. 

Avogadro  was  very  much  surprised  to  see  him,  and 
asked  with  curiosity  what  sort  of  trip  he  had  made. 

'Excellent,'  he  answered.  'I  met  a  couple  of  good- 
for-nothings  who  wanted  to  stop  me,  but  I  killed  them, 
and  here  I  am.' 

Avogadro,  filled  with  admiration,  gave  him  a  purse 
of  gold  and  sent  him  back  to  Masperoni       MoimenH, 
with  a  letter  of  congratulation.  Bandit  1, 289. 

Incidents  of  this  kind  occurred  long  afterwards,  even 
after  the  fall  of  the  Republic.  The  name  of  Cristofoli 
is  associated  with  that  of  Count  Alemanno  Gambara  in 
a  story  which  could  not  be  believed  if  the  documents 
that  prove  it  were  not  all  preserved  in  the  various 
archives,  and  principally  in  those  of  the  Inquisitors. 

The  Gambara  family  was  of  Lombard  origin,  and 
had  always  been  very  influential  in  the  neighbourhood 


322  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xm 

of  Brescia.  The  race  had  produced  fine  specimens 
of  all  varieties  —  soldiers,  bishops,  cardinals,  murderers, 
and  one  woman  poet,  besides  several  bandits,  traitors, 
and  highwaymen.  In  the  late  sixteenth  century  two 
brothers  of  the  family,  Niccolo  and  Lucrezio,  had 
a  near  relative,  Theodora,  an  orphan  girl  of  fourteen 
years  and  an  heiress,  who  was  in  charge  of  a  guardian. 
On  the  twenty-second  of  January  1569  the  two  brothers 
went  to  the  guardian  and  ordered  him  to  give  up  the 
girl.  On  his  refusal  they  threw  him  down  his  own 
stairs,  wounded  his  people  who  tried  to  defend  him, 
broke  down  the  door  of  the  girl's  room,  and  carried 
her  off. 

I  only  quote  this  as  an  instance  of  the  family's 
manners.  The  last  scion  of  the  race  who  lived  under 
the  Republic,  and  who  outlived  it,  was  Count  Alemanno, 
a  young  monster  of  perversity.  He  was  born  after  his 
father's  death  at  the  castle  of  Pralboino,  on  a  feudal 
holding  belonging  to  his  house.  His  mother  was  soon 
married  again  to  Count  Martinengo  Cesaresco,  and  she 
took  the  boy  with  her  to  her  new  home.  He  was 
naturally  violent  and  unruly;  at  fifteen  he  was  an 
accomplished  swordsman,  and  was  involved  in  every 
quarrel  and  evil  adventure  on  the  country  side.  When 
still  a  mere  boy  his  conduct  was  such  as  to  give  the 
government  real  trouble,  and  the  authorities  imposed  a 
guardian  upon  him  in  the  person  of  a  priest  of  his 
family,  who  was  instructed  to  teach  him  the  ordinary 
precepts  of  right  and  wrong;  but  the  clergyman  soon 
announced  that  he  was  not  able  to  cope  with  his  young 


xiii  THE   LAST  SBIRRI  323 

relative,  and  the  Council  of  Ten  learned  that  the  boy's 
violent  character  showed  no  signs  of   improvement. 

He  was  now  arrested,  brought  to  Venice,  and  con- 
fined in  one  of  the  Piombi,  his  property  being  ad- 
ministered under  the  direction  of  the  government.  The 
Inquisitors  of  State  examined  the  record  of  the 
complaints  laid  against  him,  and  concluded  that  his 
faults  were  due  to  his  extreme  youth;  they  therefore 
ordered  him  to  reside  within  the  fortress  of  Verona, 
but  gave  him  control  of  his  fortune. 

The  Captain  of  Verona,  knowing  the  sort  of  prisoner 
he  had  to  deal  with,  and  being  made  responsible  for 
him,  sent  for  an  engineer  and  asked  his  opinion  as 
to  the  possibilities  of  escape  for  a  prisoner  who  was 
not  locked  up  in  a  cell.  The  engineer  wrote  out  a 
careful  criticism  of  the  fortress,  concluding  with  an 
extremely  practical  remark:  'With  good  means  of 
escape,'  he  observed,  'a  man  may  escape  from  any 
place,  but  without  means  it  is  not  possible  to  escape 
at  all.' 

The  Captain,  only  partially  reassured,  set  to  work  to 
convert  his  prisoner,  and  sent  him  a  good  priest  to 
teach  him  his  Catechism  and  exhort  him  to  the  practices 
of  Christianity;  but  the  young  Count  would  have 
neither  exhortation  nor  religious  instruction.  The 
Council  of  Ten  now  sent  him  to  the  fortress  of  Palma 
for  a  change  of  air,  and  the  commander  of  that  place 
inherited  the  feverish  anxiety  about  his  charge  which 
had  tormented  the  Captain  of  Verona.  He  did  not 
consult   an   engineer,   however,   and  one   morning  the 


324         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xm 

prisoner  was  not  in  his  room,  nor  in  the  fortress,  nor 
anywhere  in  the  neighbourhood  of   Palma. 

The  Inquisitors  now  sent  Sbirri  in  all  directions 
throughout  the  Venetian  territory.  They  could  not 
catch  Alemanno,  but  he  wearied  of  eluding  them,  and 
judged  that  he  could  get  better  terms  by  submitting 
to  the  Inquisitors.  He  did  so,  using  the  offices  of*  his 
aunt,  Countess  Giulia  Gambara,  who  was  married  to 
a  gentleman  of  Vicenza.  The  Podesta  of  the  latter 
city  sent  an  officer  and  six  soldiers  to  the  place  desig- 
nated by  Alemanno,  and  he  surrendered,  and  was  taken 
first  to  Padua,  and  then  to  Venice.  As  soon  as  he 
landed  at  the  Piazzetta  he  was  put  in  charge  of  Cristo- 
foli  and  the  Sbirri,  who  took  him  before  the  Inquisitors. 

They  exiled  him  to  Zara,  and  wrote  to  the  Governor 
of  Dalmatia  :  'We  desire  him  to  have  a  good  lodging. 
.  o  .  See  that  he  frequents  persons  of  good  habits, 
thanks  to  whom  he  may  not  wander  from  the  right 
path  on  which  he  has  entered,  and  in  which  we  wish 
him  to  continue.' 

The  Inquisitors,  good  souls,  so  mildlv  concerned  for 
the  wild  boy's  moral  welfare,  were  soon  to  learn  what 
Alemanno  considered  the  'right  path,'  for  the  Governor 
of  Dalmatia  kept  them  well  informed.  Before  long 
they  learned  that  a  certain  fisherman,  who  had  refused 
to  let  the  Count's  butler,  Antonio  Barach,  have  a  fine 
fish  which  was  already  sold  to  another  client,  had  been 
seized,  taken  into  the  Count's  house,  and  severely 
beaten. 

But  the  Inquisitors  were  inclined  to  be  clement  and 


XIII 


THE   LAST   SBIRRI 


3^5 


paid   no  attention  to  the  accounts  of  his   doings.     In 
1756  he  was   authorised  to   return  to   his   domains  of 


&*<  r^  n 


M 


1  <m  m 


V  \)>/i*j\s& 


r^vv? 


IN 


\S{ 


% 


VIA   GARIBALDI 


Pralboino  and  Corvione,  and  his  real  career  began. 
His  first  care  was  to  engage  as  many  desperate  Bravi 
as   he  could   find.     One  of  these  having  had   a  little 


326  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xm 

difficulty  with  the  police,  and  having  been  killed  during 
the  argument,  Alemanno  captured  a  Sbirro,  and  so 
handled  him  that  he  sent  him  back,  to  his  post  a  cripple 
for  life. 

Scarcely  a  year  after  his  return  from  Zara,  he  rode 
through  the  town  of  Calvisano,  and  without  answering 
the  Customs  officer,  whose  duty  it  was  to  ascertain  if  he 
were  carrying  anything  dutiable,  he  galloped  on  and 
escaped  recognition.  His  servant,  who  followed  him 
at  a  little  distance,  was  stopped,  and  as  he  answered 
the  Customs  men  very  rudely  he  was  locked  up  in  jail. 
But  when  the  officer  in  charge  learned  who  the  man 
was,  his  fright  was  such  that  he  not  only  set  him  at 
liberty  at  once,  but  conversed  with  him  and  treated  him 
in  the  most  friendly  manner. 

The  young  Count  was  of  course  delighted  to  learn 
that  his  name  spread  terror  amongst  government 
officials,  and  by  way  of  showing  what  he  could  do, 
he  sent  fifteen  of  his  Bravi  to  Calvisano  with  orders 
to  besiege  the  Customs  men.  In  the  fighting  that 
followed,  one  of  the  latter  was  killed  and  their  officer 
narrowly  escaped. 

The  Council  of  Ten  now  interfered,  and  summoned 
Count  Alemanno  Gambara  to  appear  before  them,  and 
if  he  refused,  the  local  authorities  were  ordered  to  take 
him  and  send  him  by  force.  Instead  of  obeying,  he 
fortified  his  two  castles,  increased  the  numbers  of  his 
band  of  Bravi,  and  defied  the  law.  With  his  ruffians  at 
his  back  he  rode  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
Brescian  territory  as  he  pleased,  and  once  even  traversed 


FROM    SAN    GEORGIO   TO    THE   SALUTE 


xin  THE   LAST   SBIRRI  327 

the  city  itself  with  his  formidable  escort.  No  one 
dared  to  meddle  with  him.  His  neighbours  in  the 
country  were  completely  terrorised,  and  he  and  his 
head  ruffian,  Carlo  Molinari,  committed  the  wildest 
excesses. 

Alemanno  seems  to  have  especially  delighted  to 
watch  the  effect  of  fright  on  his  victims.  One  day 
his  men  chased  a  priest  of  Gottolengo  and  three 
friends,  who  had  been  shooting  in  the  woods  not  far 
beyond  the  boundary  of  the  estate  of  Corvione.  The 
fugitives  succeeded  in  reaching  the  church  of  Gottolengo, 
in  which  they  took  refuge,  barricading  the  door  against 
their  pursuers.  But  the  Bravi  starved  them  out,  and 
they  were  obliged  to  surrender  unconditionally.  They 
were  then  led  out  to  a  lonely  field  and  were  exhorted 
to  commend  their  souls  to  God,  as  they  were  about  to 
be  killed  and  buried  on  the  spot.  Alemanno  watched 
their  agony  with  delight,  concealed  behind  a  hedge. 
When  he  was  tired  of  the  sport,  he  came  out  of  con- 
cealment and  ordered  his  men  to  beat  and  kick  them 
back  to  Gottolengo. 

A  retired  colonel  lived  quietly  on  a  small  estate  near 
one  of  Gambara's.  His  servants  accidentally  killed  one 
of  the  Count's  dogs;  he  had  them  taken,  cruelly  beaten, 
and  sent  back  to  their  master  after  suffering  every 
indignity.  The  colonel  thought  of  lodging  a  complaint 
with  the  Council  of  Ten,  but  on  reflection  he  gave  up 
the  idea  as  not  safe,  for  Gambara's  vengeance  w7ould 
probably  have  been  fatal  to  any  one  who  ventured  to 
give    information    of   his    doings.     No    one    was    safe 


j2S'  GLEANINGS    FROM    HISTORY  xm 

within  his  reach,  neither  man,  nor  woman,  nor  child. 
A  volume  might  be  tilled  with  the  list  of  his  crimes. 

At  last,  in  1762,  the  municipality  of  the  town  of 
Gambara,  from  which  he  took  his  title,  resolved  to 
petition  the  Council  of  Ten  for  help  and  protection 
against  him.  When  he  learned  that  this  was  their 
intention,  he  rode  into  the  town  with  his  escort,  and 
halting  in  the  market-place  addressed  the  citizens; 
his  threats  of  vengeance  w7ere  so  frightful,  and  he  was 
so  well  able  to  carry  them  out,  that  the  chief  burghers 
fell  upon  their  knees  before  him,  weeping  and  im- 
ploring his  forgiveness. 

One  day  several  Sbirri  traversed  some  of  his  land  in 
pursuit  of  a  smuggler  who  sought  his  protection.  He 
met  them  smiling,  and  cordially  invited  them  to  spend 
a  night  under  his  roof.  With  the  childlike  simplicity 
which  is  one  of  the  most  endearing  characteristics  of 
most  Italians,  they  fell  into  the  trap.  On  the  next  day, 
a  cart  loaded  with  greens  entered  Brescia,  and  stopped 
opposite  the  house  of  the  Venetian  Podesta.  The  horses 
were  taken  out  and  led  away,  without  exciting  any 
remark,  and  the  cart  remained  w'here  it  had  been 
left,  till  the  foul  smell  it  exhaled  attracted  attention. 
It  was  unloaded,  and  underneath  the  greens  were  found 
the  bloody  corpses  of  the  Sbirri  who  had  accepted 
Gambara's  hospitality. 

This  time  the  Inquisitors  of  State  took  matters 
seriously,  and  sent  a  squadron  of  cuirassiers  and  a 
detachment  of  Sbirri,  under  the  command  of  an  officer 
called  Rizzi,  to  arrest  him  and  his  henchman  Molinari. 


xiii  THE   LAST  SBIRRI  329 

Rizzi  came  to  Pralboino  and  broke  down  the  gates, 
but  the  two  men  were  already  gone,  and  the  expedition 
ended  in  the  confiscation  of  a  few  insignificant  letters 
found    in    Alemanno's    desk. 

He  had  understood  that  he  must  leave  Venetian 
territory  for  a  time,  and  riding  down  into  the  Duchy 
of  Parma  he  sought  the  hospitality  of  his  friend, 
the  Marchese  Casali,  at  Monticelli.  He  next  visited 
Genoa,  and  judging  that  it  was  time  to  settle  in  life,  he 
married  the  Marchesa  Carbonare,  whom  he  judged,  with 
some  reason,  to  be  a  woman  worthy  of  his  companion- 
ship. 

They  returned  together  to  Monticelli,  where  they 
led1  a  riotous  existence  for  some  time.  Being  one  day 
short  of  money,  Alemanno  stopped  the  messengers  who 
were  conveying  to  Venice  the  taxes  raised  in  Brescia, 
and  sent  them  on  after  giving  them  a  formal  receipt 
for  the  large  sum  he  had  taken  from  them.  But  this 
was  too  much  for  the  Duke  of  Parma,  who  now  re- 
quested the  couple  to  spend  their  time  elsewhere  than 
in  his  Duchy. 

They  consulted  as  to  their  chances  of  getting  a  free 
pardon  for  the  crimes  the  Count  had  committed  on 
Venetian  territory  and  against  the  Republic,  and  the 
Countess  addressed  a  petition  to  the  Doge  which  begins 
as  follows:  'Every  penitent  sinner  who  sincerely 
purposes  to  mend  his  life  obtains  of  God  mercy  and 
forgiveness;  shall  I,  Marianna  Carbonare,  the  most 
afflicted  wife  of  Count  Alemanno  Gambara,  not  feel 
thereby  encouraged  to  fall  upon  my  knees  before  the 


330  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xm 

august  Throne  of  your  Serenity  ?  .  .  .'  And  much 
more  to  the  same  effect. 

Another  petition  signed  by  both  was  addressed  to 
the  Inquisitors,  and  a  third,  signed  only  by  Alemanno, 
to  the  Doge  and  the  Inquisitors  together.  In  this 
precious  document  he  calls  them  'the  most  perfect 
image  of  God  on  earth,  by  their  power.' 

The  object  of  these  petitions  was  that  the  Count  might 
be  sent  into  exile,  anywhere,  so  long  as  he  were  not  shut 
up  in  a  fortress,  a  sentence  which  would  soon  kill  him, 
as  he  was  in  bad  health. 

He  had  certainly  committed  many  murders  and  had 
killed  several  servants  of  the  Republic  in  the  perform- 
ance of  their  duties;  and  he  had  stolen  the  taxes 
collected  in  Brescia.  Amazing  as  it  may  seem,  his 
petition  was  granted,  and  he  was  exiled  to  Zara  for  two 
years,  after  which  he  wTas  allowed  to  come  to  Chioggia 
on  the  express  condition  that  he  should  not  set  foot 
outside  the  castle,  and  should  see  no  one  but  his  wife 
and  son.  He  remained  in  Chioggia  just  a  year,  from 
the  twenty-fifth  of  September  1777,  to  the  twenty- 
sixth  of  September  1778,  after  which  the  Inquisitors 
were  kind  enough  to  give  him  his  liberty  if  he  would 
present  himself  before  their  Secretary,  which  he  did 
with  alacrity. 

My  readers  need  not  be  led  into  a  misapprehension 
by  the  touching  unanimity  which  the  loving  couple  ex- 
hibited in  the  petitions  they  signed.  They  never  agreed 
except  when  their  interests  did,  and  were  soon  practi- 
callv  separated  in  their  private  life.     The  Countess  took 


xiii  THE   LAST  SBIRRI  331 

Count  Miniscalchi  of  Verona  for  her  lover,  while 
Alemanno  showed  himself  everywhere  with  the  Countess 
of  San  Secondo.  In  the  end  they  separated  altogether, 
and  the  son,  Francesco,  remained  with  his  father,  who 
educated  him  according  to  his  own  ideas. 

So  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  the  man  never  changed 
the  manner  of  his  life.  After  his  pardon  he  returned 
to  his  estates  in  the  province  of  Brescia,  where  he  found 
his  old  friends,  who  were  few,  and  the  recollections  of 
his  youth,  which  were  many.  In  a  short  time  Pralboino 
and  Corvione  were  once  more  dens  of  murderers  and 
robbers  as  of  old,  and  as  in  former  days  he  had  been 
helped  in  his  blackest  deeds  by  Carlo  Molinari,  his 
chief  Bravo,  so  now  he  was  seconded  by  his  steward, 
Giacomo  Barchi,  who  kept  the  reign  of  terror  alive  in 
the  country  when  it  pleased  the  Count  to  reside  in 
Venice. 

He  was  sleeping  soundly  in  his  apartment  in  the 
capital  one  morning  towards  the  end  of  March  1782, 
after  having  spent  most  of  the  night  at  a  gambling 
house  by  the  Ponte  dell'  Angelo  —  he  never  slept  more 
than  four  hours  —  when  he  was  awakened  by  an  un- 
expected visit  from  Cristofolo  de'  Cristofoli,  who  re- 
quested him  to  appear  at  once  before  the  Secretary  of 
the  Inquisitors.  An  examination  of  conscience  must 
have  been  a  serious  affair  for  Alemanno,  and  not  to  be 
undertaken  except  at  leisure;  and  it  appears  that  on 
this  occasion  he  really  did  not  know  what  he  was  to  be 
accused  of  doing.  The  Secretary  of  the  Inquisitors 
merely  commanded  him  not  to  leave  the  city  on  pain 


332         GLEANINGS   FROM  HISTORY         xm 

of  the  Tribunal's  anger,  and  on  the  morrow  he  learned 
that  his  steward  Barchi  had  also  been  arrested. 

For  some  reason  impossible  to  explain,  nothing  was 
done  to  either,  and  before  long  even  the  steward  was 
set  at  liberty.  The  Inquisitors  confined  themselves  to 
threatening  the  two  with  'the  public  indignation'  and 
their  own  severest  measures,  if  the  Count  did  not  dismiss 
his  Bravi  and  'reform  his  conduct.' 

After  that,  history  is  silent  as  to  his  exploits.  He 
was  no  longer  young,  and  even  the  zest  of  murder  and 
rapine  was  probably  beginning  to  pall  on  his  weary 
taste.  We  know  that  he  sincerely  mourned  the  fall  of 
the  Republic  which  had  been  so  consistently  kind  to 
him,  and  he  never  plotted  against  the  government. 
He  could  not  but  feel  that  it  would  have  been  an 
exaggeration  to  accuse  it  of  having  been  hard  on  him. 

His  son  Francesco,  on  the  contrary,  turned  out  to 
be  one  of  the  most  turbulent  of  revolutionaries,  and 
helped  to  lead  the  insurrection  at  Bergamo.  But  for 
the  intervention  of  Bonaparte  himself,  he  would  have 
been  killed  by  the  inhabitants  of  Salo,  who  remained 
faithful  to  the  Republic,  when  they  repulsed  the  in- 
surgents. He  was  one  of  the  five  delegates  whom  the 
city  of  Brescia  sent  to  Bonaparte,  to  name  him  president 
of  the  Cisalpine  Republic.  He  died  in  1848,  after 
having  written  a  life  of  his  father,  which  was  published 
eleven  years  later  in  Trieste.  One  cannot  but  feel  that 
in  composing  a  memoir  of  his  parent,  filial  piety  led 
him  too  far. 

In    concluding   this    chapter,  which    has    dealt  with 


xiii  THE   LAST  SBIRRI 


333 


criminals,  I  shall  take  the  opportunity  of  observing  that 
the  places  in  which  criminals  were  confined  in  Venice- 
shared  in  the  general  decay  of  everything  connected 
with  the  government.  In  the  seventeenth  century  and 
earlier  all  prisoners  had  been  carefully  kept  separate 
according  to  their  misdeeds;  in  the  eighteenth,  mere 
children  were  shut  up  with  adult  criminals,  and  debtors 
were  confined  with  thieves.  In  the  women's  prisons 
lunatics  were  often  imprisoned  with  the  sane,  a  state  of 
things  that  led  to  the  most  horrible  scenes. 

The  gaolers  of  the  Pozzi  and  the  Piombi  did  not 
even  keep  the  prisons  clean,  and  the  state  of  the  cells 
\vas  such  that  I  do  not  care  to  disgust  the  reader  by 
describing  it.  In  the  other  prisons,  or  attached 
to  them,  a  regular  tavern  was  tolerated  and  perhaps 
authorised,  as  a  place  of  gathering  for  the  prisoners, 
and  here  games  of  chance  were  played,  even 

.  r     i  •  i  i  i  i  •         i        Mutindli,  lit. 

such  as  were  forbidden  elsewhere  in  the 
city.  The  archives  of  the  Ten  show  how  many  crimes 
were  committed  in  the  very  places  where  men  were 
confined  to  expiate  earlier  offences.  As  for  the  gaolers, 
they  were  one  and  all  corruptible.  One  of  the  Savi, 
the  patrician  Gritti,  denounced  to  the  Senate,  in  1793, 
a  gaoler  who  let  the  healthiest  and  most  airy  cells  to 
the  highest  bidders. 


THE    PESAKO    PALACE,    GRAND   CANAL 


XIV 


THE  LAST  DOGES 


Between  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  and 

the   end   of  the   Republic   eleven    Doges   occupied   the 

throne.     Of  these  the  only  one  who  might 
1700-1797.  jj- 

have  saved  the  government  or  retarded  its 

fall  was  the  very  one  who  reigned  the  shortest  time. 

Let  us  say  that  if  he  had  lived,  he  might  have  so  far 

restored  the  strength  of  the  ancient  aristocracy  as  to  admit 

of  its  perishing  in  a  struggle  instead  of  dying  of  old  age. 

This   Doge  was   Marco  Foscarini,  who  was  elected 

334 


xiv  THE   LAST  DOGES  335 

on  the  thirty-first  of  May  1762,  and  died  on  the  thirty- 
first  of  the  following  March.  He  was  a  man  whose 
integrity   was    never   questioned,    even    by 

.  ...  .     .  .       .  Rom.viii.  142. 

the  revolutionaries,  and  he  accepted  the 
Dogeship  with  the  greatest  regret.  He  was  a  man  of 
letters,  and  the  endless  empty  ceremonial  of  the  ducal 
existence  obliged  him  to  leave  unfinished  his  noble 
work  on  Venetian  literature.  Even  had  the  Dose's  action 
not  been  hopelessly  paralysed  by  the  hedge  of  petty 
regulations  that  bristled  round  him,  Foscarini's  experi- 
ence of  affairs  in  the  course  of  occupying  many  exalted 
posts  had  left  him  few  illusions  as  to  the 

f  c  ,  .  <-ri-  -11      Rom.viii. 302. 

future  of  his  country.        1  his  century  will 

be  a  terrible  one  for  our  children  and  grandchildren,' 

he  wrote  some  time  after  his  election. 

Like  many  of  the  Doges  he  was  a  very  old  man 
when  he  was  elected,  and  was  over  eighty-eight  years 
of  age  when  he  died,  apparently  much  surprised  at 
finding  himself  at  his  end,  though  not  unprepared  for 
it.  He  complained  that  his  physicians  had  not  told 
him  how  ill  he  was,  and  he  asked  for  a  little  Latin 
book,  De  modo  bene  moriendi,  which  had  been  given  him 
by  his  friend  Cardinal  Passionei;  presently  he  tried  to 
dictate  a  few  reflections  to  his  doctor,  but  was  too  weak, 
and  expired  whispering,  'My  poor  servants!'  He 
had  apparently  not  provided  for  them  as  he  would  have 
done  if  he  had  not  been  taken  unawares. 

His  successor  was  Aloise  IV.  Mocenigo,  who  had 
been  Ambassador  to  Rome  and  to  Paris.  His  election 
was  celebrated  in  a  manner  that  recalled  the  festivities 


336  CLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xiv 

of  the  sixteenth  century.  A  secretary  was  sent  to  the 
Mocenigo  palace  to  announce  the  news  to 
his  family,  and  the  Dogess  took  four  days 
in  which  to  complete  her  preparations,  after  which  she 
came  to  the  ducal  palace  accompanied  by  her  two 
married  nieces,  her  sisters,  her  mother,  all  her  own 
female  cousins,  and  all  those  of  her  husband;  and  this 
battalion  of  noble  women  in  their  gondolas  was  followed 
down  the  Grand  Canal  by  an  innumerable  fleet  of 
gondolas  and  boats.  All  the  male  relations  were  wait- 
ing at  the  landing  of  the  Piazzetta  to  escort  the  ladies 
to  the  palace,  where  the  Dogess,  seated  on  a  throne, 
received  the  homage  of  the  electors  and  of  all  the  nobility. 
She  did  not  wear  the  ducal  insignia  on  that  day.  In 
the  evening  there  was  a  ball,  which  she  opened  with  one 
of  the  Procurators  of  Saint  Mark. 

A  series  of  festivities  began  on  the  following  day,  at 
which  she  appeared  in  a  memorably  magnificent  dress: 
a  long  mantle  of  cloth  of  gold,  like  the  Doge's 
own,  with  wide  sleeves  lined  with  white  lace,  opened 
to  show  a  skirt  and  body  all  of  gold  lace-wrork;  a 
girdle  of  diamonds  encircled  her  waist;  her  head-dress 
was  a  veil,  arranged  like  a  cap,  but  the  two  ends  hung 
clown  to  her  shoulders,  and  were  picked  up  and 
fastened  to  her  back  hair  by  two  diamond  clasps. 

On  three  consecutive  evenings  there  were  balls   at 

the  palace,  and  at  each  the  Dogess  danced  only  one 

minuet,  with  a  Procurator  of  Saint  Mark, 

Rom,  viii.  i/8.  .  -iii 

as  etiquette  required  when  there  were  no 
foreign  princes  in  Venice. 


xiv  THE   LAST   DOGES  337 

This  reminds  one  of  old  times;  it  is  even  true  that 
in  some  ways  the  display  at  the  ducal  palace  was 
greater  than  it  had  ever  been.  The  G.  r.  Mickiel, 
banquets  especially  took  the  importance  of  U2S9- 
public  spectacles,  and  were  always  five  in  number,  given 
at  the  leasts  of  Saint  Mark,  the  Ascension,  Saint 
Vitus,  Saint  Jerome,  and  Saint  Stephen,  after  the  last 
of  which  the  distribution  of  the  'oselle'  took  place, 
representing  the  ducks  of  earlier  days,  as  the  reader 
will  remember.  At  these  great  dinners  there  were 
generally  a  hundred  guests;  the  Doge's  counsellors, 
the  Heads  of  the  Ten,  the  Avogadors  and  the  heads  of 
all  the  other  magistracies  had  a  right  to  be  invited,  but 
•the  rest  of  the  guests  were  chosen  among  the  func- 
tionaries at  the  Doge's  pleasure. 

In  the  banquet-hall  there  were  a  number  of  side- 
boards on  which  was  exhibited  the  silver,  part  of  which 
belonged  to  the  Doge  and  part  to  the  State,  and  this 
was  shown  twenty-four  hours  before  the  feast.  It  was 
under  the  keeping  of  a  special  official.  The  glass 
service  used  on  the  table  for  flowers  and  for  dessert 
was  of  the  finest  made  in  Murano.  Each  service, 
though  this  is  hard  to  believe,  is  said  to  have  been  used 
in  public  only  once,  and  was  designed  to  recall  some 
important  event  of  contemporary  history  by  trophies, 
victories,  emblems,  and  allegories.  I  find  this  stated 
by  Giustina  Renier  Michiel,  who  was  a  contemporary, 
was  noble,  and  must  have  often  seen  these  banquets. 

The  public  was  admitted  to  view  the  magnificent 
spectacle  during  the  whole  of  the  first  course,  and  the 

VOL.    II.  —  Z 


33$  GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  xi\ 

ladies  of  the  aristocracy  went  in  great  numbers.  It 
was  their  custom  to  walk  round  the  tables,  talking  with 
those  of  their  friends  who  sat  among  the  guests,  and 
accepting  the  fruits  and  sweetmeats  which  the  Doge 
and  the  rest  offered  them,  rising  from  their  seats  to  do 
so.  The  Doge  himself  rose  from  his  throne  to  salute 
those  noble  ladies  whom  he  wished  to  distinguish 
especially.  Sovereigns  passing  through  Venice  at  such 
times  did  not  disdain  to  appear  as  mere  spectators  at 
the  banquets,  which  had  acquired  the  importance  of 
national   anniversaries. 

Between  the  first  and  the  second  courses,  a  majestic 
chamberlain  shook  a  huge  bunch  of  keys  while  he 
walked  round  the  hall,  and  at  this  hint  all  visitors 
disappeared.  The  feast  sometimes  lasted  several  hours, 
after  which  the  Doge's  squires  presented  each  of  the 
guests  with  a  great  basket  filled  with  sweetmeats,  fruits, 
comfits,  and  the  like,  and  adorned  with  the  ducal  arms. 
Every  one  rose  to  thank  the  Doge  for  these  presents, 
and  he  took  advantage  of  the  general  move  to  go  back 
to  his  private  apartments.  The  guests  accompanied 
him  to  the  threshold,  where  his  Serenity  bowed  to  them 
without  speaking,  and  every  one  returned  his  salute  in 
silence.     He   disappeared  within,  and   all  went    home. 

During  this  ceremony  of  leave-taking,  the  gondoliers 

of  the  guests  entered  the  hall  of  the  banquet  and  each 

G.R.Mkhiei,    carried  the  basket  received  by  his  master 

Origim  l J02.    to    some    lacJy    indicated    by    the    latter. 

'One    may    imagine,'    cries    the   good    Dame    Michiel, 

'what  curiosity  there  was  about  the  destination  of  the 


XIV 


THE   LAST   DOGES 


339 


baskets,  but  the  faithful  gondoliers  regarded  mystery 
as  a  point  of  honour,  though  the  basket  was  of  such 


MARCO    rOLO  S   COURT 


dimensions  that  it  was  impossible  to  take  it  anywhere 
unobserved;  happy  were  they  who  received  these 
evidences    of  a    regard    which    at   once   touched    their 


3+0  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xiv 

feelings  and  flattered  their  legitimate-  pride!  The 
greatest  misfortune  was  to  have  to  share  the  prize  with 
another.' 

The  reign  of  Aloise  Mocenigo  was  the  one  in  which 
the  question  of  reforms  was  the  most  fully  discussed, 
but  many  of  the  discussions  turned  on  theories,  and 
though  a  few  led  to  the  passage  of  measures  which 
somewhat  affected  commerce  and  public  instruction,  no 
real  result  was  produced.  The  Republic,  I  repeat,  was 
dying  of  old  age,  which  is  the  only  ill  that  is  universally 
admitted   to  be   incurable. 

At  the  death  of  Mocenigo,  three  candidates  were 
proposed  for  the  ducal  throne,  namely,  Andrea  Tron, 
Girolamo  Venier,  and  Paolo  Renier.  If  the  people  had 
been  consulted,  Venier  would  have  been  acclaimed, 
though  I  do  not  pretend  to  say  that  his  election 
would  have  retarded  the  end.  Nothing  is  easier  than  to 
speculate  about  what  'the  people'  might  have  done  at 
any  given  point  in  history;  nothing  is  harder  than  to 
guess  what  they  are  going  to  do;  nothing,  on  the 
whole,  is  more  certain  than  that  the  voice  of  the 
people  never  yet  turned  the  scale  at  a  great  moment 
in  a  nation  well  out  of  its  infancy.  No  one  pretends 
nowadays  that  the  French  revolution  was  made  by 
'the  people.' 

The  many  in  Venice  wrere  vastly  surprised  to  hear 
of  Paolo  Renier's  candidacy,  for  he  had  a  very  indifferent 
reputation;  to  be  accurate,  the  trouble  was  that  it  was 
not  indifferent,  but  bad.  He  was,  indeed,  a  man  of  keen 
penetration,   rarely  eloquent,   and   a   first-rate  scholar. 


xiv  THE   LAST   DOGES  341 

He  knew  Homer  by  heart,  and  he  had  translated  Plato's 
Dialogues,    which     latter    piece    of     work       ,,    ... 

6  I  R.  -.■111.  240, 

might  partly  explain,  without  excusing,  *#/;  Mutineiu, 
his  deplorable  morals;  but  it  was  neither 
from  Plato  nor  from  Homer  that  he  had  learned  to 
plunder  the  government  of  his  country.  One  of  his 
contemporaries,  Gratarol,  described  him  as  possessing 
'the  highest  of  talents,  the  most  arrogant  of  characters, 
and  the  most  deceptive  of  faces.' 

It  was  commonly  reported  in  Venice  that  when  he 
had  been  Bailo  at  Constantinople  he  had  taken  advan- 
tage of  the  war  between  Turkey  and  Russia,  under 
Catherine  the  Great,  to  enrich  himself  in  a  shameful 
manner,  and  the  ninety  thousand  sequins  he  made  on 
that  occasion  afterwards  served  him,accordingto  popular 
report,  for  bribing  the  Barnabotti  in  the  Great  Council 
in  order  that  the  forty-one  electors  chosen  might  be 
favourable  to  him.  He  was  certainly  not  the  inventor 
of  this  plan,  but  he  is  generally  said  to  have  just  out- 
done his  predecessors  in  generosity,  without  over- 
stepping the  limits  of  strict  economy.  The  general 
belief  is  that  he  bought  three  hundred  votes  at  fifteen 
sequins  each,  which  was  certainly  not  an  excessive 
price.  It  appears,  too,  that  he  distributed  money  to  the 
people  in  order  to  soothe  the  irritation  his  candidacy 
caused.  If  all  these  accusations  were  not  clearly 
proved,  they  were  at  least  the  subject  of  contemporary 
satire. 

A  certain  priest  in  particular  wrote  biting  verses  on 
him,  in  Venetian  dialect,  describing  the  righteous  anger 


342  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xiv 

of  the  late  Marco  Foscarini's  ghost  at  the  election  of 

such  a  successor.     The  shade  of  the  honour- 
Malamani.  r      ......       . 

able  man  tears  orr  the  ducal  insignia  in 
disgust,   and   bitterly   reproaches   Venice. 

'Ah,  foolish  Venice!'  it  exclaims,  'a  Renier  is 
Doge  of  our  country,  one  who  with  ribald  heart  and 
iniquitous  words  sought  to  undo  that  tribunal  which 
defends  our  country  from  all  evil !  Ah,  mad  Venice  ! 
Now  indeed  I  do  repent  me  of  having  been  Doge  one 
year !  Strike  my  name  from  the  series  of  the  Doges, 
for  I  disdain  to  stand  among  traitors/ 

After  his  election  Paolo  Renier  had  his  first  'osella' 
coined  with  a  peculiarity  in  the  superscription  which 
irritated  the  public.  The  words  ran  :  '  Paulus  Reinerius 
principis  munus/  his  name  being  in  the  nomina- 
tive case,  a  grammatical  mistake  which  had  always 
been  regarded  as  the  special  privilege  of  kings  and 
emperors. 

He    made    money    of   everything,    by    selling    posts, 

franchises,    and    licenses    to    beg    at   the    door   of   the 

Basilica  of  Saint  Mark.     The  Dogess  was 

MutinelH,  Ult.  . .       .  .  .         .        .  . , 

not  a  person  likely  to  increase  her  husband  s 
popularity,  for  she  had  been  a  rope-dancer,  and  never 
appeared  at  public  ceremonies.  As  I  have  explained 
elsewhere,  it  was  the  Doge's  niece  who  did  the  honours 
of  the  palace,  Dame  Giustina,  who  was  beloved  and 
esteemed  by  all  Venetians,  but  'the  Delmaz,'  as  the 
Doge's  wife  was  called,  interfered  in  a  hundred  details 
of  the  administration. 

It  is  told,  for  instance,  that  the  priest  of  the  church 


xiv  THE  LAST   DOGES  343 

of  San  Basso  used  to  have  the  bell  rung  for  mass  very 
early  in  the  morning,   and   that   it   had   a 
peculiarly  harsh  and  shrill  tone  which  dis-     'SanBasso'; 
turbed  the  Dogess's  slumbers.     She  sent  for    f°  ^°1^ 

o  Vecchie  ±>torte. 

him  and  promised  to  make  him  a  canon  of 
Saint  Mark's  if  he  would  only  have  the  bell  moved, 
or  not  rung.  The  good  man  promised  and  went  away 
delighted,  but  when,  after  a  time,  the  canonry  was  not 
given  to  him,  he  began  ringing  again,  and  doubtless 
enjoyed  the  thought  that  every  stroke  set  the  faithless 
Dogess's  teeth  on  edge. 

The  people  revenged  themselves  on  the  Renier  family 
for  its  many  misdeeds  in  scathing  epigrams,  and  when  at 
last  the  Doge  lay  dying  in  long  agony,  the 

&    .     J       -       f .  1         >  1  Mutinelli,  Ult. 

gondoliers  said  that  his  soul  refused  to 
leave  without  being  paid.  The  truth  is  that  as  his  death 
took  place  in  Carnival  week,  on  February  eighteenth, 
1789,  it  was  decided  to  keep  his  death  a  secret  not 
only  over  Ash  Wednesday,  but  until  the  first  Monday 
in  Lent,  in  order  not  to  disturb  the  merry- 

Rom.  viii.  joo. 

making,  nor  the  reaction  which  was  sup- 
posed to  follow  it;   and  he  was  buried  without  much 
ceremony  and  with   no   display  in  the  church  of  the 
Tolentini. 

The  candidates  proposed  for  election  to  succeed  him 
were  numerous,  but  not  of  good  quality.  One  of  them, 
Sebastiano    Mocenigo,    was    such    a    bad 

11111  .      T7.  Rom.  viii.  301. 

character  that  when  he  had  been  in  Vienna 

as  Ambassador  the  Empress  Maria  Teresa  had  asked 

the  Republic  to  recall  him.     The  truth  was  that  the 


34+ 


(il  1   VXINC.S    I  K<  »\1    HISTORY 


XIV 


few  who  were  fit  for  the  Dogeship  would  nor  accept  it, 
or  were  opposed  by  the  whole  body  of  the  corruptible. 


of 


PONTE    DELI. A    IMETA 

As  a  specimen  of  what  went  on  during  the  election 
the  last  Doge  of  Venice,   I  subjoin   an  official   list 


XIV 


THE   LAST   DOGES 


345 


of  what  were  considered  the  legitimate  expenses  of  the 
electors.     The  fijrures  are  from  Mutinelli 

&  _,  .  .        Mutinelli,  Ult. 

and   may  be  trusted.      I  hey  are  given   m 

Venetian  'lire,'  one  of  which  is  considered  to  have  been 

equal  to  half  a  modern  Italian  'lira,'  or  French  franc. 

Ven.   Lire. 

Bread,  wine,  oil,  and  vinegar 

Fish   ........ 

Meat,  poultry,  game     ..... 

Sausages,  large  and  small        .... 

Preserved  fruits  and  candles  .... 

Wines,  liquors,  coffee  ..... 

Spices,  herbs,  fruit,  flowers    .... 

Wood  and  charcoal       ..... 

Utensils  hired,  worn,  and  lost 

Small  expenses     ...... 

Given  to  footmen  and  to  workmen  of  the  guilds 
Tobacco  and  snuff        ..... 

Poem  c  La  Scaramuccia  '  (The  Skirmish) 
Almanacks  ...... 

Gameof  Rocambole(saidtohavebeenakindofOmbre) 
Nightcaps   ........ 

Felt  caps     . 

Socks  .000.0.. 

Black  silk  wig-bags       .  .  .  .  .  . 

French,  German,  and  Spanish  snuff-boxes 
Combs  '  a  la  royale,'  for  wigs,  and  for  caps 
Essence  of  rose,   carnation,    lavender,   and 

olive  gum  and  gold  powder     . 
Rouge  . 

One  rosary  ..... 

Total  .  .  .   389,926 


vanilla  ; 


29,421 

24,410 

20,370 

3,9^0 

47,670 

63*845 

6,3  H 

31>85i 

41,624 

45,327 
63,583 

4,93 J 

48 

8 

550 

450 

56 
16 
48 

3,077 
2,150 

173 

9 
15 


346 


GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 


XIV 


Romanin,  probably  with  another  copy  of  the  account 
which  he  does  not  give  in  items,  and  writing  earlier 
than  Mutinelli,  makes  the  sum  a  little  smaller.  In  any 
case  it  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  bills 
ever  brought  in  by  a  Republic  for  electing  its  chief. 

In   view   of    modern    methods    it   will    interest   some 

Kom.viii.jo2,     °f  my  readers  to  see  how  the  expenses  of 

note.  Venetian   elections    increased   towards   the 

end,  according  to  Romanin :  — 


Election  of  Carlo  Ruzzini  in  1732 

"  Aloise  Pisani  "  1 734 

"  Pietro  Grimani  "  1741 

"  Francesco  Loredan  "  1752 

"  Marco  Foscarini  "  1762 

"  Aloise  Mocenigo  "  1763 

"  Paolo  Renier  "  1779 

"  Ludovico  Manin  "  1789 


Vcn.  lire. 
68,946 
70,629 
70,667 
134,290 

120,868 

125,234 
222,410 

37^3«7 


Greatly  increased  expenditure  for  successive  elections 
during  half  a  century  can  only  mean  one. of  two  things, 
the  approach  of  a  collapse,  or  the  imminence  of  a 
tyranny.  The  greater  the  proportionate  increase  from 
one  election  to  the  next,  the  nearer  is  the  catastrophe. 
The  election  of  the  last  Doge  of  Venice  cost  five  and  a 
half  times  as  much  as  that  of  Carlo  Ruzzini.  It  would 
be  interesting  to  know  what  proportion  Julius  Caesar's 
enormous  expenses,  when  he  was  elected  Pontifex 
Maximus,  bore  to  those  of  a  predecessor  in  the  same 
office  fifty  years  earlier. 

The  Venetian  electors  who  managed  to  consume,  or 
make  away  with,  nearly  eight  thousand  pounds'  worth 


xiv  THE  LAST  DOGES  347 

of  food,  drink,  tobacco,  and  rose-water  in  nineteen 
days,  chose  an  honest  man,  though  a  very  incompetent 
one,  and  the  public  showed  no  enthusiasm  for  the  new 
Doge,  in  spite  of  the  great  festivities  held  for  his 
coronation.  The  Venetian  people,  too,  preserved  their 
artistocratic  tendencies  to  the  very  last,  and  always 
preferred  a  Doge  of  ancient  lineage  to  one  who,  like 
Manin,  came  of  the  'New  men.' 

He  was  not  fortunate  in  his  choice  of  a  motto  for 
his  first  'osella.'  He,  who  was  to  dig  the  grave  of 
Venetian  liberty,  chose  the  single  word  'Libertas'  for 
the  superscription  on  his  first  coin;  and  on  that  which 
appeared  in  the  last  year  but  one  of  the  independ- 
ence of  Venice  were  the  words  'Pax  in  virtute  tua,' 
which,  as  Mr.  Horatio  Brown  has  pointedly  observed, 
'reads  like  a  mocking  epitaph  upon  the  dying 
Republic' 

Manin  was  a  weak  and  vacillating  man,  though 
truthful,  generous  to  a  fault,  and  not  a  coward.  As 
Doge,  he  w7as  bound  hand  and  foot,  and  only  a  man  of 
great  character  could  have  broken  through  such  bonds 
to  strike  out  an  original  plan  that  might  have  prolonged 
his  country's  life.  He  gave  his  fortune  without  stint, 
but  the  idea  of  giving  anything  else  did  not  occur  to 
him.  Before  the  tremendous  storm  of  change  that 
broke  with  the  French  revolution  and  raged  throughout 
Europe  for  years,  he  bowed  his  head,  and  Venice  went 
down.  No  man  is  to  be  blamed  for  not  being  born  a 
hero;  nor  is  the  mother  of  heroes  in  fault  when  she  is 
old  and  can  bear  them  no  more. 


XV 


THE  LAST  SOLDIERS 


During  the  eighteenth  century  Venetian  diplomacy 
succeeded  in  preserving  the  Republic's  neutral  position 
in  spite  of  the  great  wars  that  agitated  Europe.  Her 
only  war  was  with  the  Turks,  and  it  was  disastrous. 

Early  in  the  century  the  Turks   attacked  the  Pelo- 
ponnesus, and  Venice  lost  her  richest  colonies  in  rapid 
succession.     Her    navy    was    no    longer    a 
power,  and  she  was  almost  without  allies, 
for  the  European  powers  were  exhausted  by  the  recent 

348 


xv  THE  LAST  SOLDIERS  349 

war  of  the  Spanish  succession,  and  though  Malta  and 
the  Pope  befriended  her,  the  help  they  could  give  was 
insignificant.  It  was  not  until  the  Turks  attacked 
Hungary  that  she  received  any  efficient  assistance;  by 
uniting  her  forces  with  those  of  the  Empire  she 
obtained  some  success,  and  the  desperate  courage  of 
Marshal  Count  von  Schulenburg,  a  Saxon  general  in 
the  Venetian  service,  saved  Corfu.  The  Turks,  beaten 
at  sea  by  the  Venetians,  and  on  the  Danube  by  the 
Hungarians  at  Temesvar,  made  peace,  and  the  treaty 
of   Passarowitz    put    an    end    to   the   war. 

I7/S 

But  Venice  had  for  ever  lost  the  Pelopon- 
nesus, Crete,  and  other  valuable  possessions. 

After  this  disastrous  struggle,  it  was  impossible 
to  preserve  any  further  illusions  as  to  the  future. 
Venice  felt  that  she  was  in  full  decadence,  and  only 
endeavoured  to  hide  its  outward  signs.  Instead  of 
trying  to  beat  against  the  current,  she  allowed 
herself  to  drift;  things  wTent  from  bad  to  wTorse,  and 
before  long  the  army,  the  navy,  and  the  Arsenal  were 
completely  disorganised,  though  their  expenses  had  not 
in  the  least  diminished.  A  contemporary  says  that  a 
regiment  looked  like  a  company,  and  a  Mutmein,  uit. 
company  like  a  corporal's  guard,  whereas  'sow- 
the  Republic  was  paying  for  regiments  with  their  full 
complement  of  men. 

The  service  of  the  hired   troops  was   beneath   con- 
tempt.      In     Padua    the    students    of    the   MuHnelH,  uit. 
University    defied    the    garrison.     On    one         /76- 
occasion,   in   a   hideous  orgy,  they  accidentally  or  in- 


350         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xv 

tentionally  did  to  death  a  pretty  beggar  girl;  but  when 
a  detachment  of  Croatian  soldiers  attempted  to  arrest 
the  culprits,  the  students  treated  them  with  such  utter 
contempt  that  their  commander  was  terrified,  fled  with 
his  men  to  the  safety  of  the  barracks,  and  bolted  and 
barred  the  doors. 

If  such  things  happened  on  Venetian  territory  one 
may  fancy  what  the  state  of  things  was  in  the  colonies. 
Corfu  was  supposed  to  be  defended  by  a  company  of 
Venetian  soldiers  and  two  companies  of  Albanians. 
From  1724  to  1745  the  latter  were  represented  by  two 
men,  a  major  and  a  captain,  whose  sole  business  was  to 
draw  the  pay  of  the  whole  force.  The  two  officers 
embezzled  the  sums  allowed  for  the  men's  food  and 
uniforms,  and  the  pay  was  sent  to  the  soldiers,  who  lived 
in  their  own  homes  in  the  mountains.  No  trouble 
was  taken  even  to  identify  them,  and  when  one  died  it 
was  customary  for  another  to  take  his  name  and  receive 
his  pay.  The  two  companies  thus  literally  earned  im- 
mortality, and  the  names  on  the  rolls  never  changed. 
Several  Albanians  who  drew  their  pay  as  Venetian 
mercenaries  enrolled  themselves  also  in  the  so-called 
'Royal  Macedonian'  regiment,  in  the  service  of  the 
King  of  Naples,  and  were  never  found  out  by  the 
Republic.  In  twenty-one  years  these  imaginary  troops 
cost  Venice  54,300  sequins,  or  over  £40,000. 

The  colonial  garrisons  economised  their  gunpowder 
by  abolishing  all  target  practice,  and  consisted  chiefly 
of  utterly  untrained  old  men  who  were  absent  most 
of  the  time.     The  fortresses  were  not  more  serviceable 


xv  THE  LAST   SOLDIERS  351 

than  the  troops  that  were  supposed  to  defend  them.     On 
the  mainland,  the  frontier  fort  of  Peschiera 
was  half  dismantled,  the  drawbridges  had     iUld  TasHni, 
long   rusted    in   their   positions    and   could  ,  „    u"der1.     , 

o  r  Bombardiere. 

not  be  raised,  and  the  ramparts  were 
so  overgrown  with  trees  and  shrubs  as  to  be  im- 
passable; at  one  time  the  fort  did  not  even  possess 
a  flag  to  show  its  nationality.  Ninety  of  its  guns  had 
no  carriages;  the  gunners  lived  quietly  at  their  homes 
in  Venice,  and  if  they  ever  remembered  that  the}'  were 
supposed  to  be  soldiers  it  was  because  the  government 
dressed  them  up  on  great  occasions  as  a  guard  of 
honour  for  the  ducal  palace.  Their  number  was 
between   four  and   five  hundred. 

As  for  the  fort  of  Corfu,  it  was  robbed  by  a  common 
thief.     In    1745,   a   certain   Vizzo   Manducchiollo   pro- 
mised the  Turks   two  good   guns,  one  of  Mutmeiu,  uit. 
bronze   and   one   of  iron.     With   the   help  l6g- 

of  his  gang  he  scaled  the  wall  of  the  Raimondo  Fort 
one  night,  carried  off  the  cannon,  and  sold  them  to  the 
Turks   for  twenty-seven  sequins.  * 

The  workmen  of  the  Arsenal  in  Venice,  who  had 
formerly  been  the  best-organised  body  of  men 
in  the  Republic,  had  completely  come  to  grief 
in  the  eighteenth  century.  The  Arsenal  was  sup- 
posed to  be  governed  by  a  voluminous  code  of  laws, 
most  of  which  were  now  either  altogether  disregarded, 
or  were  administered  with  culpable  leniency.  The 
disorder  was  incredible.  Every  son  of  a  workman  in 
the  Arsenal  had   an   hereditary   right  to  be  employed 


352         GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  xv 

there,  but  the  officials  who  were  in  command  did  nor 
take  any  means  oi  checking  the  men's  attendance;  they 
paid  so  much  a  head  tor  every  workman  on  the  pay- 
roll, according  to  his  age,  whether  he  ever  appeared 
except  on  pay-days  or  not.  In  this  way  the  State  paid 
out  vast  sums  to  men  who  only  entered  the  gates  once 
a  month  to  draw  their  wages  for  doing  nothing.  Many 
of  them  had  other  occupations,  at  which  they  worked 
regularly  and  industriously.  Some  were  even  actors, 
and  one  of  the  cleverest  'Pantaloons'  wras  officially 
known  as  one  of  the  best-paid  Arsenal  hands.  1  he 
six  hundred  apprentices  who  were  supposed  to  attend 
the  technical  schools  attached  to  the  different  depart- 
ments of  the  yard,  only  looked  in  now7  and  then. 
When  the  time  came  for  them  to  pass  for  the  certificate 
of  master  workman  they  paid  the  sum  of  thirty-four 
Venetian  lire,  in  consideration  of  which  the  Examiners 
pronounced  them  competent.     In  this  way,  as  Mutinelli 

Mutinein,w.  truly   says,   ignorance   became   hereditary, 

145*  *53-       as    employment    in    the    Arsenal    already 

was,    and    the    yard    became    a    mere    monument    of 

former  generous  initiative,  very  expensive  to  maintain. 

At  the  fall  of  the  Republic,  Bonaparte  seized  and 
sent    to    France    a    large    number    of   vessels.     When 

Rom.x.162,  the  Arsenal  was  sacked  in  1797  it  was 
note  2,  and 304.  founcJ  to  contain  5293  pieces  of  artillery, 
of  which  2518  were  of  bronze,  and  the  rest  of  iron; 
and  at  the  last  there  were  brought  from  the  docks 
ten  ships  of  seventy  guns,  eleven  of  seventy-six,  one 
of  fifty-five,  thirteen  of  forty-two,  two  of  thirty-two, 


XV 


THE   LAST  SOLDIERS 


153 


twenty-three  galleys,  one  floating  howitzer  battery,  two 
'cutters,'  whatever  the  Italian  writer  may  have  meant, 


<*eJ*. 


''fee; 


^m  S.-.'-V 


KSfl 


BOAT-BUILDERS 


twelve    gunboats,    three    brigs    of   sixteen    to    eighteen 
guns,   one   fore-and-aft   schooner,   seven   galleons    and 


Vol..   II.  —  2  A 


354  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xv 

as  many  'zambecchi,'  five  feluccas,  many  boats  armed 
with  grenade  mortars,  ten  floats  with  two  guns,  and 
one  floating-battery  of  seven  guns. 

If  these  vessels  were  not  all  badly  built,  they 
were  certainly  badly  fitted  out  and  badly  sailed 
when  they  went  to  sea.  The  Provveditori  and 
Inquisitors  Extraordinary,  sent  from  time  to  time  by 
the  Senate  to  inspect  the  fleet,  complained  that  they 
found  neither  good  carpenters  nor  good  sailors.  One 
frigate,  which  had  a  nominal  crew  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty-seven  men,  the  Concordia,  was  found  to  have 
barely  thirty,  and  not  able  seamen  at  that.  As  for  the 
convicts  who  pulled  the  oars  on  the  war-galleys,  they 
were  kept  half-clothed  and  shelterless  when  ashore; 
but  being  only  carelessly  guarded  they  often  ran  away, 
and  not  unfrequently  succeeded  in  finding  employment, 
under  assumed  names,  in  the  smaller  ports  of  the 
Republic.  Some  are  known  to  have  become  house- 
servants.  Nevertheless  the  overseer  of  each  gang 
regularly  pocketed  the  money  allowed  for  their  food 
and  clothing:. 

In  1784  it  was  proved  that  for  a  long  time  from  sixty 
to  seventy  thousand  fagots  of  wood  and  an  immense 
number  of  barrel  staves  had  disappeared  yearly,  no  one 
knew  how.  The  workmen  of  the  Arsenal  did  not 
think  "it  necessary  to  buy  firewood  when  it  could  be 
had  for  nothing. 

In  1730,  the  Provveditor  Erizzo  was  ordered  to 
one  of  the  Eastern  colonies  on  an  important  mission, 
with  several  larsje  vessels.     Almost  at  the  moment  of 


XV 


THE  LAST  SOLDIERS 


355 


starting,  the  officers  of  one  of  these  galleys  came  and 
begged  him  to  give  them  a  captain  not  belonging  to  the 


THE    VEGETABLE    MARKET 


navy,    as    they   should    not   otherwise    feel    safe   to   go 
to  sea. 

Yet  at  this  very  time  Goldoni  wrote  that  every  one 


356  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xv 

sang  in  Venice:  'They  sing  in  the  squares,  in  the 
Goidoni.i.chap.  streets,  on  the  canals;  the  shopkeepers 
sing  as  they  sell  their  wares;  the  work- 
men sing  as  they  leave  their  work ;  the  gondolier  sings 
while  he  waits  for  his  master.  The  characteristic  of 
the  nation   is   its   gaiety.' 

In  the  midst  of  this  laughing  decadence,  in  the  very 
depth  of  this  gay  and  careless  disintegration  of  a 
country's  body  and  soul,  we  come  across  one  devoted, 
energetic  character,  a  fighting  man  of  the  better  days, 
who  reminds  us  of  what  Venice  was  in  her  greatness. 

Angelo  Emo  was  great,  considering  the  littleness  of 
Venice  in  his  time.  If  we  compare  him  with  Vittor 
Pisani,  Carlo  Zeno,  or  Sebastian  Venier,  he  seems  small 
as  a  leader;  but  as  a  plain,  brave  man,  he  is  not  dwarfed 
by  comparison  with  men  who  were  colossal  in  an  age 
of  giants. 

He  was  born  in  1731,  and  was  brought  up  by  his 
father  to  dream  of  older  and  greater  times,  and  to  know 
more  of  his  country's  history  than  most 
youths  of  his  day.  He  travelled  early  and 
far,  often  employed  on  business  of  the  State,  and  he 
was  able  to  compare  the  condition  of  Venice  with  that 
of  other  European  countries,  especially  England  and 
France,  in  regard  to  military  and  naval  matters. 

He  was  not  yet  thirty  years  old  when  the  government 
sent  him  to  Portugal  to  study  the  means  of  re- 
viving the  commercial  relations  between  that  kingdom 
and  Venice.  Sailing  down  the  Adriatic,  he  put  into 
Corfu,  probably  for  fresh  provisions;    but  on  learning 


PONTE    CANONICA 


I 


•     I!     ft1 


H 

^     mm 


/i 


xv  THE  LAST  SOLDIERS  557 

that  many  intrigues   were  already  on  foot  to  deprive 


FONDAMENTA   WEIDERMANN 


him  of  his  mission,  he  set  sail  again  at  once  for  the 
Mediterranean  in  order  to  be  beyond  reach  of  recall. 


358         GLEANINGS   FROM  HISTORY  xv 

He  passed  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  but  fell  in  with  a 
gale  of  wind  in  the  ocean  which  nearly  put  an  end  to 
his  sailing  for  ever.  The  Venetian  vessels  were  not 
remarkable  for  their  seaworthiness  at  best,  and  ocean 
weather  was  almost  too  much  for  Emo's  ship.  He 
himself  describes  the  frightful  confusion  in  the  storm, 
and  the  difficulty  he  had  in  managing  his  men.  To 
make  matters  worse,  the  freshwater  tanks  were  sprung 
and  most  of  the  supply  was  lost,  so  that  water  was 
served  out  in  rations,  while  the  food  consisted  princi- 
pally of  what  the  British  sailor  terms  'salt  horse.' 
Then  the  vessel  lost  her  rudder,  and  things'  looked 
badly;  but  the  gale  moderated  and  died  out  at  last, 
and  the  ship  brought  to  near  a  wooded  coast,  whence 
Emo  was  able  before  long  to  get  a  tree,  which  was 
rough  hewn  to  serve  as  a  rudder,  and  he  got  his 
vessel  into  port  at  last,  'with  the  admiration  and 
applause  of  every  one,'  says  Romanin,  after  describing 
the  affair  of  the  jury-rudder  as  only  a  landsman  can 
describe  an  accident  at  sea. 

His   mission   to   Portugal  was   successful,   and   Emo 

returned  to  Venice;    but  when  he  tried  to  direct  the 

attention  of  the  government  to  reforms  of  which  the 

army  and  navy  stood  in  urgent  need,  he  could  obtain 

no  practical  result,  so  that  when   he  was 

I78d 

placed  in  command  of  a  fleet,  with  orders 
to  punish  the  Bey  of  Tunis  and  the  Algerian  pirates, 
he  was  well  aware  that  his  force  was  by  no  means  what 
it  appeared  to  be  to  the  inexperienced  public.  In  the 
course  of  the  campaign  his  largest  ship,  La  Forza,  ill- 


xv  THE   LAST  SOLDIERS  359 

equipped  and  worse  officered,  sank  before  his  eyes  off 
Trapani,  and  none  of  the  other  vessels  could  be  relied 
on  to  do  any  better.  Yet  with  such  material  and  such 
men  he  sustained  a  conflict  that  lasted  three  years,  and 
if  he  was   unable  to   destroy   the    Bey   of   w       „    ,„ 

J     _  J  Mut  nielli,  (  It. 

Tunis,  he  at  least'  humbled  him,  brought  tso.andRom. 
him  to  terms,  and  obtained  from  him  a 
formal  treaty  engaging  to  put  down  piracy  on  the 
African  coast.  France  profited  much  by  the  result  of 
this  expedition,  and  one  of  the  last  documents  signed 
by  Louis  XVI.  before  he  fell  was  a  letter  to  the  Doge 
Manin,  in  which  Angelo  Emo  was  praised  to  the  skies 
for  the  good  work  he  had  done. 

The  Admiral  was  rewarded  with  the  title  of  Cavaliere, 
the  only  one  the  Republic  ever  conferred,  and  with  the 
office  of  Procurator  of  Saint  Mark's,  but  I  cannot  find 
that  his  advice  as  to  reforms  was  ever  listened  to.  A 
few  years  later,  the  Bey  of  Tunis  broke  his  promise  in 
regard  to  piracy,  and  Emo  was  again  sent  with  a  fleet 
to  chastise  him,  but  was  suddenly  taken  ill  in  Malta, 
and  died  in  a  few  days.  He  was  poisoned,  it  is  said, 
by  Condulmer,  his  principal  lieutenant,  who  at  once 
succeeded    him    as    admiral. 

The  last  Venetian  fighting  man  was  of  average 
height  and  lean,  and  stooped  a  little;    he    „ 

fo  .  r  '  Statue  of  Emo, 

was  pale,  his  forehead  was  broad,  and  he      Canova; 
had  blue  eyes  and  black  eyebrows,  particu- 
larly thick  and  bushy.     His  mouth  was  strong,  but  the 
lips   were   thick    and   coarse. 

His  remains  were  carefully  embalmed  in  Malta  and 


360         (CLEANINGS    FROM    HISTORY  xv 

were  brought  home  to  Venice  on  his  flagship,  the  Tama 
—  'fame'  —  which  came  to  anchor  on  the  twenty-fourth 

of  May  1792.  The  bodv  was  followed  from  the  mole  to 
Saint  Mark's  by  the  clergy,  the  schools,  the  magistracies, 
and  a  vast  concourse  of  people.  The  funeral  mass  was 
sung  in  the  presence  of  the  Doge,  and  the  vast  pro- 
cession wended  its  way  to  the  church  of  the  Serviti. 
To  the  martial  sound  of  drums  and  the  solemn  roar  of 
the  minute  gun,  Venice  laid  her  last  captain  to  rest 
beside  his  fathers. 


•v.,. 


THE   SALUTE    FROM   S.    GIORGIO 


XVI 


THE  LAST  DIPLOMATISTS 


During  the  seventeenth  century  the  Republic  had  no 
doubt  of  her  own  military  strength,  but  nevertheless 
trusted  much  to  her  diplomacy;  in  the  eighteenth  the 
latter  was  the  last  good  weapon  left  her  of  the  many 
that  had  once  been  in  her  armoury,  and  skilled  as  her 
diplomatic  agents  were,  their  efforts  could  not  prevent 
her  from  spoliation  by  the  Turks,  whose  simple  rule 
was  to  take  first  and  to  talk  about  rights  afterwards. 

361 


362         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xvi 

In  a  measure,  too,  Venice's  position  as  a  neutral 
power  was  dearly  bought,  and  more  than  once  in  the 
war   of  the   Spanish   succession    her   territory   was   the 

Rom.viii.5,     scene    of    fighting    between    French    and 
sqq-  Germans.     The   same   skill   kept   her  out 

of  the  field  during  the  quarrels  for  the  succession  of 
Parma,  of  Tuscany,  of  Poland,  and  of  Austria,  and 
obtained  for  Venetian  Ambassadors  a  place  of  honour 
in  the  congresses  that  resulted  in  the  treaties  of  Utrecht, 
Vienna,  and  Aix-la-Chapelle. 

During  the  American  war  of  independence,  there 
were  constant  diplomatic  relations  between  the  Republic 
and  the  American  deputies  who  came  to  France  for  the 
congress  of  Versailles.  The  Venetian  archives  contain 
a  letter  signed  by  John  Adams,  Benjamin  Franklin, 
and  Thomas  Jefferson,  by  which  the  Americans  hoped 
to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  commercial  treaty;  but 
owing  to  the  excessive  caution  of  Venice  the  attempt 
had  no  result.  The  Republic  of  the  Adriatic  had 
almost  always  looked  eastward  for  her  trade,  and 
distrusted  the  new  world  which  she  had  declined 
to  help  to  discover.  The  original  letter,  written  in 
the  English  language,  and  addressed  to  the  Venetian 
Ambassador  in  Paris,  Daniele  Dolfin,  has  not  been 
published,  I  believe;  and  I  shall  not  insult  the  memory 
of    such    writers    by    attempting    to    turn    Romanin's 

Rom. via. 229,   trans'ati°n  back  into  their  language.     The 

23°-  letter  explains  that  the  three  signers   are 

fully  empowered   by  their  government  to  negotiate  a 

friendly  treaty  of  commerce,  and  will  be  glad  to  enter 


xvi  THE  LAST   DIPLOMATISTS  363 

upon  the  negotiation  as  soon  as  the  Venetian  Ambas 
sado.r  is  properly  authorised  to  do  so;  in  signing  they 
use  the  form,  'your  most  obedient,  humble  servants.' 
For  the  benefit  of  any  American  who  may  wish  to  get 
at  the  original,  I  may  add  that  Romanin  found  the 
letter  in  the  Archives  of  the  Senate,  with  the  despatches 
from  Fiance  of  Daniele  Dolfin,  envelope  261. 

A  letter  from  another  Venetian  Ambassador  in 
Paris,  Cappello,  prophetically  dated  July  fourteenth, 
1788,  exactlv  one  year  before  the  destruc- 

.  Rom.  ix.  153. 

tion  of  the  Bastille,  to  the  very  day, 
sounds  the  first  warning  alarm  of  the  approaching 
revolution;  few  writers  have  better  summed  up  the 
condition  of  the  French  monarchy  when  it  was  on 
the  brink  of  the  abyss,  and  no  diplomatist  could  have 
given  his  own  country  better  advice. 

The  Committee  of  the  Savi,  who  concentrated  all 
power  into  their  own  hands,  did  not  even  communicate 
this  letter  to  the  Senate.  Cappello  spoke  still  more 
clearly  when  he  made  his  formal  report  in  person,  on 
returning  from  his  mission  and  after  leaving  Paris  just 
when  the  King  was  to  be  asked  to  sign  the  Constitution, 
a  document  for  which  the  Ambassador  confesses  that 
he  can  find  no  name.  'It  is  not  a  monarchy,'  he  says, 
'for  it  takes  everything  from  the  monarch;  it  is  not  a 
democracy,  because  the  people  are  not  the  legislators; 
it  is  not  that  of  an  aristocracy,  for  the  mere  name  is 
looked  upon  in  France  not  as  treason  against  the  King, 
but  as  treason  against  the  nation.  .  .  .  The  National 
Assembly  began  by  encroaching  upon  all  powers,  and 


364         GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  xvi 

by  confounding  within  itself  all  the  attributes  of  sover- 
eignty, usurping  the  administrative  functions  from  the 
executive  power,  and  from  the  judiciary  the  right  of 
judging  criminal  cases.' 

It  is  easy  to  understand  the  impression  made  by 
such  a  report,  in  the  course  of  which  the  Ambassador 
narrated  the  scenes  that  took  place  in  Versailles  and  at 
the  Tuileries  after  the  night  of  October  sixth,  1789. 
The  aristocratic  Venetian  Republic  sympathised  pro- 
foundly with  the  dying  French  monarchy;  but  it  was 
impossible  to  believe  that  such  a  state  of  things  would 
last  long,  and  the  government  was  painfully  surprised 
by  the  letter  in  which  Louis  XVI.  announced  that  he 
accepted  the  situation.  That  letter  is  in  existence. 
In  it  the  King  declares  that  he  has  accepted  the  new 
form  of  government  'of  his  own  free  will;  that  the 
National  Assembly  is  only  a  reform  of  the  ancient 
States  General,  and  will  ensure  the  happiness  of  the 
nation  and  the  monarchy.'  The  King  adds,  as  if  to 
hide  his  weakness  from  himself,  that  what  is  called  a 
'revolution'  is  mostly  only  the  destruction  of  a  mass 
of  prejudices  and  abuses  which  endanger  the  public 
wealth,  and  that  he  was  therefore  proud  to  think  that 
he  should  leave  his  son  something  better 
than  the  crown  as  he  had  inherited  it  from 
his  ancestors,  namely,  a  constitutional  monarchy. 

This  letter,  with  its  artificial  enthusiasm,  is  dated 
March  fourteenth,  1791,  three  months  before  the 
King's  flight  and  his  arrest  at  Varennes,  and  less  than 
two  years  before  his  murder  on  the  scaffold. 


Hi!) 


8 


niSQ 


l>  t 


^'         HliPi 


31111, 
K  If^fl  ill 


FROM   THE    PONTE    DELLA    PIETA 


366         GLEANINGS   FROM    HISTORY  x\i 

Cappello's  successor  as  Ambassador  in  Paris,  Alvise 
Pisani,  continued  to  keep  his  government  informed  of 
what  occurred.  On  the  twenty-fifth  of  September 
1 79 1 ,  Louis  XVI.  addressed  another  letter  to  his  'most 
dear  friends,  allies,  and  confederates,'  the  Vene- 
tians, in  which  he  expresses  the  ceitainty  that 
they  will  be  rejoiced  to  hear  of  his  having  signed  the 
Constitution,  which  had  so  greatly  shocked  Cappello. 
In  spite  of  the  painful  impression  produced  by  these 
documents,  it  was  necessary  to  answer  them,  if  onlv  as 
a  matter  of  etiquette. 

The  position  of  the  Republic  was  a  difficult  one. 
Prudence  required  the  strictest  neutrality  as  to  the 
affairs  of  other  nations;  but  the  mere  fact  that  every 
one  recognised  this  as  Venice's  only  possible  position 
exposed  her  to  perfidious  and  secret  attacks  of  all  sorts. 
France  maintained  a  vast  number  of  secret  agents  to 
propagate  revolutionary  doctrines  in  the  Venetian  ter- 
ritory, and  at  the  same  time  lost  no  opportunity  of 
trying  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  the  Republic,  by  insulting 
her  flag.  On  the  twenty-ninth  of  November  1792,  the 
captain  of  a  French  man-of-war,  bearing  a  Spanish  name, 
the  Buenos  Ayres,  asked  permission  to  land  with  eight 
men  on  the  Venetian  shore,  but  refused  to  submit  to  the 
regulations  of  the  Health  Office.  His  request  was 
refused.  Thereupon  he  proceeded  to  abuse  the 
Venetian  government  from  the  deck  of  his  ship.  He 
wound  up  by  declaring  that  there  was  no  such  thing 
existing  as  a  Sovereign  Government,  that  all  men  were 
equal,  and  that  he  was  a  magistrate,  as  good  as  any 


xvi  THE   LAST   DIPLOMATISTS  367 

senator.     He  chose  to  land,  and  he  would  land  if  he 

chose.     A   Venetian   galley    hindered    him 

from   doing   so,   but    as    he    made    off    he 

cried  out:    'You  will  change  your  minds  in  a  year!' 

Poor  France !  She  herself  was  to  learn  a  century 
later  that  all  men  are  equal  —  in  the  eyes  of  German 
Jews. 

At  that  time  Austria  allied  herself  with  Piedmont 
to  oppose  the  French  invasion  which  was  imminent, 
and  the  Venetian  Envoy  at  the  court  of  Turin  con- 
tinually advised  his  government  to  join  this  league, 
which  alone  could  save  the  Republic  and  the  other 
Italian  powers. 

The  Committee  of  the  Savi  who  had  absorbed  the 
government  of  Venice  simply  by  saving  trouble  to  all 
the  other  officials,  allowed  the  Senate  to 
discuss  this  proposition,  probably  because 
they  understood  its  vast  importance.  But  the  Senate 
declared  for  strict  neutrality,  and  the  Savi  felt  that  after 
this  they  were  free  to  do  as  they  pleased,  and  from  that 
time  they  decided  according  to  their  own  judgment 
as  to  the  question  of  showing  any  despatch  to  the 
Councils  or  of  suppressing  it  in  order  to  avoid  public 
discussions. 

Nevertheless,  they  felt  the  danger  of  the  moment 
enough  to  recall  the  Venetian  vessels  stationed  at 
Malta  and  Corfu,  in  order  to  defend  the  approaches 
to  Venice,  a  measure  which  displeased  France  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  a  preparation  for  hostilities.  Thus 
the  success  of  the  French  army  in  Savoy  obliged  the 


368         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xvi 

Savi  to  call  in  the  Senate  again,  to  discuss  the  public 
safety.  The  'fathers  of  their  country'  were  at  that 
time  mostly  in  their  country  places,  thoroughly  enjoying 
themselves;  but  they  too  must  have  felt  that  there  was 
clanger  in  the  air,  for  they  answered  the  summons  of 
Francesco  Pesaro,  the  presiding  Savio  for  the  week. 
A  lively  discussion  took  place,  but  once  more  neutrality 
was  voted  by  a  strong  majority,  and  the  government 
of  the  Savi  now  entered  upon  a  course  of  half  measures 
more  dangerous  in  reality  than  any  one  mistake  could 
have  been.  Permission  was  granted  to  the  Imperial 
troops  to  transport  provisions  from  Trieste  to  Goro, 
and  with  a  last  revival  of  the  business  spirit  the 
Republic  violated  the  neutrality  she  had  voted  by 
selling  corn  and  oats  to  the  Austrians.  At  this  the 
Venetian  Ambassador  withdrew  to  London  for  safety, 
leaving  his  secretary  in  charge. 

An    incident    now   occurred    in   Venice 

Rom.  ix.  203.  111  1      • 

which  was  calculated  to  bring  matters  to 
a  crisis. 

The  French  Ambassador,  who  had  quitted  Venice, 
had  left  in  charge  of  the  Embassy  a  certain  Monsieur 
Henin,  who  had  taken  as  his  private  secretary  a  priest 
called  Alessandn.  On  the  twTenty-ninth  of  December 
1792  this  priest  was  sent  for  in  haste  by  the  Superior 
of  the  bare-footed  Carmelites  of  the  monastery  of  San 
Geremia,  close  to  the  palace  occupied  by  the  French 
Embassy.  He  was  introduced  with  some  mystery, 
but  with  no  loss  of  time,  and  was  conducted  to  the 
Superior's  room,  where  he  was  warned  that  unless  he 


XVI 


THE   LAST  DIPLOMATISTS 


369 


left  Venice  by  the  sixth  of  January,  he  would  be 
assassinated.  There  was  a  plot  to  kill  him,  but  one  of 
the  intended  murderers  had  confessed  to  the  Superior 
himself,  and  under  the  seal  of  confession  had  begged 
the  monk  to  save  Alessandri's  life. 

The  priest,  who  does  not  seem  to  have  been  timid, 
was  much  surprised,  but  promised  nothing  as  to  leaving 
the  city,  though  he  appears  to  have  at  once  considered 


OS   THE   WAY  TO   FUSINA,    FROM    THE   MOUTH    OF  THE   BRENTA 


the  means  of  getting  away.  But  on  that  same  evening 
the  Superior  received  an  anonymous  note  with  these 
words:  'Either  the  Abbe  Alessandri  will  leave  Venice 
to-morrow,  and  at  once  quit  Venetian  territory,  or 
something  serious  will  happen  to  him.'  The  Superior 
sent  for  Alessandri  again.  The  note,  strange  to  say, 
had  been  delivered  together  with  fifteen  gold  sequins, 
which  the  unknown  writer  sent  to  help  the  priest's 
flight. 

The  priest  now  lost  no  time,   but  left  at  once  for 

VOL.   II.  —  2  B 


3/0         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xvi 

Fusina  on  the  mainland,  and  finding  no  means  of 
getting  on  at  once,  pursued  his  journey  on  foot.  He 
had  left  with  the  monk  a  written  receipt  for  the  money, 
which  he  had  been  forced  to  accept,  and  he  had  also 
informed  his  employer,  Monsieur  Henin,  of  the  cause 
of  his  sudden  departure. 

Monsieur  Henin  was  furious,  and  not  without  some 
reason.  He  wrote  a  violent  letter  to  the  Venetian 
Government,  inquiring  how  an  unknown  person  could 
dare  anything  so  outrageous  in  a  well-regulated  com- 
munity. Who  was  instigating  the  outrageous  crime  ? 
What  monster  had  paid  fifteen  sequins  to  have  the 
murder  committed  ?  What  was  the  meaning  of  the 
pretended  confession  ?  Why  did  the  villainous  author  of 
the  abominable  plan  drag  a  monk  into  the  plot  ?  This 
was  the  gist  of  Monsieur  Henin's  letter,  and  he  ended 
by  demanding  the  immediate  arrest  and  condign  punish- 
ment of  the  murderer,  or  murderers,  and  the  recall  of 
his  fugitive  secretary,  who,  he  insisted,  must  be  so  well 
guarded  by  the  government  as  not  to  be  in  fear  of 
his  life. 

The  Secretary  of  Embassy  certainly  had  right  on 
his  side  so  far,  but  he  followed  up  his  letter  in  an 
interview  with  one  of  the  Inquisitors,  in  which  he 
declared  his  belief  that  it  was  the  government  itself 
that  threatened  Alessandri.  The  Inquisitors  might 
have  answered  that  they  disposed  of  much  simpler  and 
surer  means  than  the  hand  of  a  hired  assassin  whenever 
they  wished  to  be  rid  of  an  obnoxious  person'.  Henin 
suggested,    too,    that    the    outrage    wTas    instigated    by 


xvi  THE  LAST  DIPLOMATISTS  371 

Austria  in  order  to  exasperate  France,  an  idea  which 
seems  deficient  in  logic. 

Henin  appears  to  have  been  a  violent  sort  of  person, 
and  anything  but  a  diplomatist.  Of  course  he  had 
right  on  his  side,  but  Alessandri,  on  inquiry,  turned  out 
to  be  a  bad  character,  and  anything  but  the  'mild, 
tranquil,  reticent,  and  retiring'  creature  of  fifty-six, 
whom  the  Frenchman  represented  him  to  be.  He 
had  been  obliged  to  leave  his  native  city,  Trent,  for 
debt  and  various  misdemeanours ;  he  was  a  violent 
revolutionary,  and  in  his  'tranquil  retirement'  he 
dwelt  with  a  disreputable  woman  of  the  people,  whom 
he  had  enticed  away  from  her  family;  from  which 
facts  it  was  easy  to  argue  that  he  had  made  himself  the 
object  of  some  private  vengeance. 

Nevertheless,  and  although  Henin  had  not  at  that 
time  any  proper  credentials  as  Charge  d'affaires,  the 
Inquisitors  thought  it  best  'to  avoid  disturbance,  and 
Alessandri  was  brought  back  and  properly  protected. 
Almost  immediately  upon  this  Henin  received  credential 
letters  from  his  government,  and  asked  to  present  them 
to  the  Senate. 

The  Savi,  who  detested  the  man,  were  much  dis- 
turbed ;  and  as  the  Senate  and  the  Great  Council  left  the 
matter  to  them,  they  asked  the  assistance 

Rout.  ix.  207. 

of  those  of  their  colleagues  who  had  served 
their  time  and  retired.  •  As  they  wore  black  cloaks  the 
people    nicknamed    them    the    'Consulta    Nera,*    the 
'Black  Cabinet.' 

Not  to  receive  the  official  representative  of  the  new 


j72  (JLEANINGS    FROM    HISTORY         xvi 

French  government  would  have  been  contrary  to  the 
policy  of  strict  neutrality  adopted  by  the  Venetian 
Republic;  to  receive  him  was  to  irritate  Austria  and 
to  expose  Venice  to  an  attack  from  that  side.  She  had 
pursued  a  policy  of  half  measures,  and  the  end  of  half 
measures  is  always  a  fall  between  two  stools.  The  fall 
was  precipitated  by  the  soothing  eloquence  of  one  of  the 
speakers,  who  assured  his  colleagues  that  all  Europe  would 
understand  and  forgive  them  for  yielding  to  necessity. 

The  Senate  accordingly  voted  with  the  Black 
Cabinet  that  Henin  should  be  received,  but  instructed 
its  ambassadors  at  the  various  European  courts  to  con- 
vey information  of  the  fact  with  all  the  circumspection 
possible,  and  in  such  a  way  as  to  palliate  the  action  of 
the  Venetian  government  in  the  eyes  of  the  world. 

While  this  was  going  on,  the  secretary  whom  the 
Venetian  Ambassador  Pisani  had  left  in  charge  at  Paris, 
wrote  an  eloquent  letter  describing  the 
death  of  Louis  XVI.,  and  he  sent  at  the 
same  time  a  scrap  of  the  cloak  which  the  King  had 
worn  on  his  wray  to  the  scaffold.  This  caused  the  most 
profound  emotion.  In  the  Senate,  Angelo  Ouirini 
loudly  declared  that  all  diplomatic  relations  with  a 
government  of  hangmen  and  executioners  must  be 
instantly  broken  off. 

The  matter  was  still  in  discussion  when  Henin 
demanded,  in  the  name  of  his  government,  the  authorisa- 
tion to  place  the  arms  of  the  French  Republic  over  the 
door  of  his  residence.  As  his  credentials  had  been 
accepted  it  was  impossible  to  refuse  this  request,  but 


xvi  THE   LAST   DIPLOMATISTS  373 

the  general  indignation  of  the  better  sort  of  the  people 
was  unbounded. 

There  were  now  two  parties  in  Venice.  On  the  one 
hand,  the  secret  emissaries  of  France  preached  revolu- 
tionary doctrines,  and  stirred  up  the  criminal  classes; 
on  the  other,  a  vast  literature  of  pamphlets,  articles, 
satires,  and  caricatures,  all  attacking  the  French,  were 
openly  circulated  throughout  the  city.  In  the  hope 
of  diverting  the  attention  of  the  whole  population 
from  political  matters  the  Savi  made  frantic  and  ex- 
travagant efforts  to  amuse  everybody.  The  very  last 
carnival  before  the  end  was  the  most  magnificent  ever 
remembered. 

In  the  year  of  the  French  King's  murder,  Bona- 
parte was  a  captain  of  artillery,  and  France  was  about 
to  face  the  first  coalition  of  the  powers,  after  putting 
down  the  royalists  in  Vendee. 

Henin  continued  to  annoy  the  Signory  in  every 
possible  wray,  and  made  the  smallest  incidents  the  sub- 
jects of  official  complaint  and  protest.  He  was  at  last 
recalled,  but  his  successor  was  a  man  called  Noel,  who 
was  such  a  notoriously  bad  character  that  the  Venetian 
Senate  put  off  receiving  his  credentials  again  and  again 
on  all  sorts  of  grounds,  doubtless  believing,  too,  that 
the  French  revolutionary  government  was  not  going  to 
last  even  so  long  as  it  did.  To  gain  time  was  to  save 
dignity,  thought  the  Senators.  But  Noel  grew  tired 
of  waiting,  and  abruptly  returned  to  Paris  in  a  very 
bad  humour,  to  stir  up  against  Venice  the  resentment 
of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety. 


374  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xvi 

It  was   now  no  longer  an   easy   matter  to  keep   up 


A   LONELY  CANAL 


appearances  of  neutrality.     England,  especially,  lost  no 
opportunity   of  urging   Venice   to   join    the    European 


xvi  THE   LAST   DIPLOMATISTS  375 

League,  and  Worsley,  the  last  English   Minister,  was 
perpetually  insisting  on  a  rupture  with  France. 

Another  circumstance  occurred  to  increase  the 
difficulty  of  Venice's  position.  The  Comte  de  Lille, 
afterwards  Louis  XVIII.,  who  styled  himselt  Regent 
of  France  during  the  captivity  of  his  nephew,  the 
unfortunate  child  Louis  XVII. ,  being  obliged  to  leave 
Piedmont,  asked  permission  to  reside  in  Verona,  and 
the  Signory,  anxiously  hoping  for  a  restoration  in 
France,  received  him  with  the  honours  due  to  his  rank. 
and  the  welcome  a  friend  might  expect.  At  this  the 
French  Republic  took  umbrage  and  protested  violently, 
but  the  Venetians  answered  that  the  presence  of  the 
Comte  de  Lille  in  Verona,  where  he  led  a  retired  life, 
was  no  violation  of  neutrality. 

The  Savi  now  had  more  on  their  hands  than  they 
could  manage,  for  they  were  obliged  at  one  and  the 
same  time  to  watch  the  movements  of  the  revolutionary 
propaganda  and  to  keep  themselves  informed  of  the 
doings  of  the  royalist  party  who  plotted  in  Venice  to 
restore  the  French  monarchy.  And  meanwhile,  in 
spite  of  a  nominal  press  censorship,  the  Postiglione 
newspaper  satirised  the  French  Republic  in  the 
bitterest  manner,  giving  Robespierre  constant  cause 
of  complaint. 

Diplomatic   relations   were   now   strained    almost   to 
the  breaking  point.     Pisani  was  still  supposed  to  be 
the  Venetian  Ambassador  in  Paris,  though    R0m.ix.2j1- 
he    resided    in    London,    and    the    French 
Envoy    in    Venice    had    left    in    disgust    at    not    being 


376  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xvi 

received.  On  the  latter  point  the  French  yielded, 
and  sent  another  and  more  respectable  representative, 
a  certain  Lallement,  whom  the  Signory  consented 
to  receive  in  spite  of  the  objections  of  the  English 
Minister. 

The  question  now  arose,  who  was  to  succeed  Pisani 
in  Paris,  and  how  the  new  envoy  was  to  be  styled. 
Lallement  had  brought  very  simply  worded  credentials, 
and  had  agreed  to  assume  any  designation  which  the 
Signory  desired.  The  Savi  were  much  distressed 
about  this  matter,  but  they  selected  Aloise  Ouirini  for 
the  mission,  and  at  last  decided  that  he  should  be 
addressed  neither  as  Ambassador  nor  Minister,  but 
simply  as  'the  Noble  Ouirini.'  They  could  hardly 
have  chosen  a  title  better  calculated  to  irritate  a  govern- 
ment which  held  that  nobility  was  a  worse  crime  than 
forgery  or  assassination. 

The  Noble  Quirini  accordingly  went  to  Paris  with  a 
very  magnificent  salary,  and  with  instructions  to  keep  up 
the  splendid  traditions  of  former  Venetian  representa- 
tives abroad. 

But  meanwhile  the  child  Louis  XVII.  had  dis- 
appeared from  the  scene,  and  the  Comte  de  Lille,  or 
the  Comte  de  Provence  as  he  was  called 

Rom.  ix.  252.  .... 

when  not  travelling  incognito,  was  a 
source  of  much  anxiety  to  Venice.  He  was  now 
undoubtedly  the  legitimate  King  of  France,  and  his 
modest  residence  in  Verona  had  become  a  court  at 
which  every  point  of  etiquette  was  most  rigorously 
observed.     The  European  powers  encouraged  him  in 


xvi  THE   LAST  DIPLOMATISTS  377 

his  efforts  to  restore  the  monarchy  in  his  own  person, 
and  England,  Austria,  and  Russia  sent  envoys  to  him 
in  Verona  without  in  the  least  considering  the  clirH- 
culties  which  their  action  might  cause  the  Venetian 
government. 

At  this  juncture  France  invented  another  form  of 
government,  and  Lallement  appeared  before  the  Senate 
with  an  entirely'  new  set  of  credentials  as 
the  Envoy  of  the  Directory,  which,  he 
declared,  was  no  less  disposed  than  its  predecessors  in 
power  to  remain  'in  perfect  understanding  and  on  the 
most  friendly  terms'  with  the  Venetian  Republic. 
The  man  who  was  to  end  the  hideous  and  grotesque 
succession  of  butcheries  and  farces  which  had  lasted 
seven  years  was  in  favour  with  this  last-hatched  and 
half-fledged  government,  and  his  dominating  influence 
was  beginning  to  be  felt.  Bonaparte  was  now  twenty- 
six  years  old ;    he  was  grown  up. 

A  few  months  earlier  Lallement  had  read  before 
the  Venetian  Senate  a  proclamation  which  the  'Repre- 
sentatives of  the  People'  sent  to  the  army 
of  the  Alps,  as  a  general  warning  against 
the  Genoese,  the  Tuscans,  and  the  Venetians,  who,  in 
spite  of  their  protestations  of  friendship,  allowed  their 
ships  to  capture  and  plunder  French  vessels  on  the 
high  seas.  By  the  end  of  1795  the  French  were 
masters  of  the  Riviera,  having  beaten  the  Austrians 
very  badly. 

Venice    was    now    accused    of   having    violated    her 
neutrality  by  allowing  the  passage  of  Austrian  troops 


378         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY  xvi 

through  her  dominions.  She  answered  that  she  had 
acted  in  accordance  with  a  very  ancient  treaty  which 
accorded  the  Empire  the  use  of  the  road  to  (  rambara, 
and  that  she  was  as  neutral  as  ever;  but  this  the 
French  found  it  hard  to  believe.  When  further  accused 
of  favouring  royalist  intrigues,  the  Signory  made  a  show 
of  punishing  the  authors  of  a  few  libels  on  the 
Directory. 

As  for  Louis  XVIIL,  as  the  Comte  de  Lille  was 
now  called  by  his  adherents,  Venice  was  reluctantly 
obliged  to  ask  him  to  leave  her  territory,  as  the 
Directory  threatened  war  if  he  remained. 

He  departed,  shaking  the  dust  from  his  feet.  He 
demanded  that  the  name  of  his  family  should  be 
Smediey, sketches  erased   from   the   Golden    Book,   and   that 

from  Venetian        1  c    \  '  u  j\t 

History  a  trie  armour  of  his  ancestor  Henry  IV. 
chap.  xx.  note,  should  be  given  back  to  him.  This  armour 
Smediey  rightly  conjectures  to  have  been  the  sword 
worn  by  Henry  IV.  at  the  battle  of  Ivry,  with  which 
he  had  knighted  the  Venetian  Ambassadors  after  his 
accession,  and  which  he  then  presented  to  the  Treasury 
of  Saint  Mark's. 

The  Signory  entirely  refused  to  accede  to  the  Comte 
de  Lille's  demands.  It  could  not  deprive  itself,  it 
replied,  of  the  satisfaction  of  counting  the  royal  family 
of  France  amongst  its  nobility,  and  it  could  not  bring 
itself  to  part  with  such  a  valuable  gift  as  it  had  received 
from  Henry  IV.;  and  with  this  quiet  answer  to  the 
Russian  envoy  who  represented  him  the  Comte  de 
Lille  had  to  be  satisfied. 


xvi  THE  LAST   DIPLOMATISTS  379 

But  France  was  not,  and  the  Inquisitors  received 
many  private  warnings  to  the  effect  that  the  French 
government  would  seize  upon  any  pretext  for  attack- 
ing Venice.  'Arm,  if  you  hope  not  to  be  trodden 
under  foot!'  Such  was  the  burden  of  these  fruitless 
messages. 

Austria,  Sardinia,  Naples,  and  Pius  VII.  openly 
allied  themselves  together,  and  the  Duchies  of  Parma 
and  Modena  secretly  promised  their  help.  Genoa  was 
paralysed  by  the  vicinity  of  the  French  army;  Tuscany 
was   playing  the  game  of  neutrality,  like  Venice. 

The  Signory  had  great  confidence  in  the  army  of 
the  allies  and  in  its  chief.  Bonaparte  was  only  a  boy; 
the  old  general  Beaulieu  would  easily  beat  him. 

But  the  Signory  was  mistaken.  The  boy  had  grown 
up  —  'Napoleon,  Apollyon,  destroyer  of  Cities,  being 
a  Lion  roaming  about,'  as  the  barbarous  Greek  jest  on 
his   name   has   it. 


XVII 

THE  LAST  HOUR 

The  end  was  at  hand  when  Bonaparte  crossed  the  river 
Po.  One  is  apt  to  forget  that  he  had  already  showed 
I7g6.  himself  to  be  much  more  than  a  victorious 
Rom.  ix.  284.  general^  and  tnat  throughout  the  campaign 
he  displayed  that  marvellous  skill  in  dealing  with  men 
which  so  often  ensured  him  an  enthusiastic  reception 
in  places  where  he  could  not  have  been  expected  to  be 
welcome. 

380 


xvn  THE   LAST   HOUR  ^\ 

He  had  soon  realised  the  horrible  impression  pro- 
duced everywhere  outside  of  France  by  the  Revolution, 
thfe  Terror,  and  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  and 
he  hastened,  by  his  numberless  agents,  to  exalt  the 
virtues  of  the  Directory.  They  were  not  a  herd  of 
bloodthirsty  ruffians,  he  taught,  but  an  assemblage  of 
the  future  saviours  of  mankind,  who  were  to  emancipate 
the  world  from  all  those  ancient  political  and  social 
prejudices  which  had  so  long  held  it  in  bondage. 

He  could  not  unteach  the  scum  of  the  Italian 
populace  what  the  agents  of  the  Revolution  had  taught 
it  with  such  lavish  expenditure  in  disreputable  taverns 
and  worse  resorts,  but  he  could  control  the  teachers 
and  gradually  change  the  direction  of  the  education. 
The  Venetian  gondoliers  could  be  taught  something, 
too,  and  the  Venetian  Barnabotti  could  be  bribed  to 
learn   anvthing,   and  to  impart  what  they  learned. 

'No  organisation,'  says  Bonnal,  'was  ever  superior 
to  his  (Bonaparte's),  no  revolutionary  organisation  was 
ever  more  formidable.     We  mean  "revolu-     ,       ,  „ 

Bonnal,  Chute 

tionary"  as  regards  the  legitimate  govern-  d'une RipuMique, 
ments  existing  in  Italy,  with  which  we  were 
not  at  war,  and  as  regards  the  means  used.  ...  It  was 
at  Milan  that  his  svstem  became  a  definite  official 
service,  both  political  and  military.  Thence  arose 
two  principal  offices  exactly  answering  the  aim  he 
was  pursuing,  that  is,  the  political  propaganda  and  the 
military  propaganda.  By  means  of  the  political  propa- 
ganda he  sought  to  bring  about  either  the  substitution 
of  one  domination  for  another,  or  the  modification  of 


382         GLEANINGS  FROM   HISTORY        xvn 

the  forms  of  government.  .  .  .  Lombardy  is  an  example 
of  the  first  case,  the  Italian  Duchies  of  the  second.  By 
his  military  propaganda  he  roused  the  populations  to 
arms,  sometimes  against  the  legitimate  sovereign,  ;is 
happened  in  Venice  and  Parma,  sometimes  against  a 
foreign   power,   as   at   Milan.' 

Once  more,  as  in  the  war  of  the  Spanish  succession, 
the  Venetian  territory  became  a  refuge  and  a  provision 
market  for  two  hostile  armies.  The  fortresses,  as  has 
been  seen,  were  really  at  the  mercy  of  any  one  who 
chose  to  occupy  them.  On  the  ninth  of  May  the 
Imperial  troops,  yielding  to  the  request  of  Contarini 
the  Governor  of  Crema,  and  supposing  the  place  to  be 
capable  of  defence,  consented  to  pass  by  the  city  with- 
out entering  it.  If  they  had  insisted  no  one  could  have 
hindered  them,  and  the  letter  Contarini  afterwards  wrote 
to  the  Venetian  government  disturbed  even  the  astound- 
ing optimism  of  the  Savi.  The  latter  were  shocked 
when  they  thought  of  the  risk  they  had  run,  and  by 
way  of  getting  rid  of  all  further  responsibility  they 
appointed  a  Provveditor  to  watch  over  the  safety  of 
the  Venetian  territory.  More  than  this  their  worst 
enemies  could  not  have  expected  them  to  do.  They 
selected  a  Foscarini  for  the  office,  and  were  particularly 
careful  to  admonish  him  that  he  must  'preserve  intact 
the  tranquillity  of  the  Republic,  and  administer  comfort 
and  consolation  to  its  subjects.'  I  translate  literally 
the  phrase,  which  sounds  like  the  drivelling  of  an  old 
man  in  second  childhood. 

The    imperial    troops    were    barely  out    of  sight  of 


OUT    IN    THE    LAGOON 


11    TUQ 


xvn  THE   LAST   HOUR  383 

Crema  when  the  French  appeared,  and  Contarini 
renewed  his  request  that  the  city  might  not  be  entered. 
Berthier  consented,  hut  requisitioned  provisions  and 
forage.  Soon  afterwards  came  Bonaparte  himself  and 
he  also  consented  to  pass  on,  hut  not  until  he  had 
squeezed  every  particle  of  available  information  out  of 
the  governor,  whose  letter  narrating  the  interview 
gives  a  remarkably  clear  idea  of  the  great  young  man's 
conversation. 

The  Senate  wrote  to  the  Commander  of  the  fortress 
of  Peschiera  not  to  allow  any  foreign  soldiers  to  enter 
under  anv  circumstances.  I  have  described  the  condi- 
tion of  the  place  elsewhere,  and  the  unlucky  colonel  at 
once  answered,  inquiring  what  in  the  world  he  was  to  do 
in  order  to  prevent  the  passage  of  the  Imperial  troops. 

The  Austrian  general  Liptay  found  it  convenient  to 
install  himself  in  Peschiera  for  some  time,  and  when 
the  Republic  protested,  he  answered  with  admirable 
coolness  and  much  truth  that  the  place  was  not  a 
fortress  at  all,  and  that  he  was  encamped  there  as  the 
French  were  in  the  fields  towards  Brescia. 

Even    Bonaparte    understood    the    absurdity   of  this 
case.     'The   truth    about   the   affair   of  Peschiera,'  he 
wrote  to  the  Directory,  'is  that  the  Vene-    /,>„„,.  IV,  2g7- 
tians   have  been   duped   by   Beaulieu ;    he  2"- 

asked  leave  to  pass  with  fifty  men  and  then  made  him- 
self master  of  the  city.' 

In  spite  of  this  conviction,  Bonaparte  took  advantage 
of  the  incident  to  declare  to  the  Provveditor  Foscarini 
that  he  would  burn  Verona  to  punish  the  Venetians 


384  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY        xvn 

for  having  favoured  the  Austrian  troops;  and  Fos- 
carini,  obliged  to  act  on  the  spur  of  the  moment  and 
without  consulting  the  government,  opened  the  gates 
of  Verona  to  Massena  on  receiving  the  latter's  assur- 
ance that  the  city  should  not  be  burned.  He  probably 
fancied  that  he  had  obtained  a  great  concession,  and  did 
not  understand  that  Verona  was  absolutely  necessary 
to  the  French  as  a  base  from  which  to  advance  on 
Mantua,  held  by  the  Imperial  troops. 

The  news  of  the  occupation  of  Verona  produced  the 
utmost  alarm  in  Venice,  yet  the  Great  Council  was  not 
summoned,  nor  was  there  a  regular  sitting  of  the 
Senate.  The  days  had  gone  by  when  the  great  bell  of 
Saint  Mark's  was  rung  backward  to  call  every  fighting 
man  to  arms,  and  every  aged  Senator  to  the  Council. 
The  handful  of  scared  and  vacillating  men  who  had 
steered  Venice  to  her  end  met  stealthily  by  night  in  the 
Casino  Pesaro,  more  like  conspirators  than  defenders 
of  their  country.  Most  of  them  fancied  the  French 
already  in  the  lagoons,  if  not  in  the  city;  some,  for- 
getting that  they  had  neither  troops  nor  captains,  were 
for  defence  to  the  death;  some,  who  had  secretly 
adopted  revolutionary  ideas  and  principles,  rejoiced  at 
heart  because  the  end  was  so  near. 

Such  a  meeting  of  such  men  could  come  to  nothing; 
and  nothing  was  decided  except  that  Foscarini,  the 
Provveditor,  should  be  assisted  bv  two  other  nobles, 
commissioned  to  negotiate  with  Bonaparte. 

They  went  and  found  him  apparently  in  the  mildest 
and    most   friendly    humour,    but   the    report   of  their 


XVII 


THE  LAST  HOUR 


385 


interview  with  him  reached  the  Senate  together  with 
a  communication  from  the  Inquisitors  explaining 
Bonaparte's  plan  for  taking  possession  of  the  fort  of 


THE   SALUTE    FROM    THE    LAGOON 


Legnago,  making  sure  of  the  free  navigation  of  the 
Adige,  and  threatening  to  destroy  Venice  in  order  to 
extort  a  sum  of  five  or  six  millions  of  francs. 

VOL.  II.  —  2  C 


386  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY        xvn 

So  Venice,  still  theoretically  neutral,  was  driven  to 
collect  such  poor  forces  as  she  had  by  land  and  sea, 
in  order  to  defend  herself  against  the  depredations  of 
the  combatants.  She  had  not  a  single  general  to  direct 
her  men,  or  to  plan  a  defence.  Three  nobles  were  in 
charge  of  her  boundaries  on  the  mainland;  another 
was  made  responsible  for  the  capital,  and  two  were 
placed  in  charge  of  the  lagoons.  A  war-tax  was 
levied,  too,  and  it  is  due  to  the  citizens  of  the  dying 
State  to  say  that  they  were  generous  to  their  country 
to  the  last.  Many  citizens  of  all  classes  gave  large 
sums  of  their  own  free  will  to  help  the  defence,  and 
not  in  Venice  only;  the  cities  of  Friuli  and  Dalmatia, 
and  even  small  communities  at  a  great  distance,  made 
heavy  sacrifices  spontaneously  for  the  public  safety. 

The  historian  Romanin  was  of  opinion  that  even  at 

that  moment,  if  the  government  had  found  resolution 

enough  to  sacrifice  all  her  possessions  on 

Rom.  ix.321.        1  •    1         1  1  r     1        t 

the  mainland,  as  at  the  time  or  the  League 
of  Cambrai,  a  clever  diplomacy  might  yet  have  saved 
the  State.  But  he  was  a  Venetian  and  a  most  patriotic 
one,  and  he  could  not  understand  that  it  needed  some- 
thing more  than  skill  to  keep  Venice  alive,  that  it 
needed  life  itself,  the  life  that  was  all  spent,  at  last, 
after  more  than  a  thousand  years. 

The  Provveditor  for  the  lagoons,  Giacomo  Nani, 
wrote  to  the  Doge  the  courageous  words:  'A  State 
has  not  the  right  to  possess  provinces  which  it  cannot 
defend.'  He,  too,  remembered  the  League  of  Cambrai. 
But  the  Doge  was  not  to  be  roused ;    it  was  no  longer 


xvii  THE   LAST   HOUR  387 

vacillation,  it  was  paralysis  of  the  will  that  made  him 
follow  the  Senate.  Yet  Nani's  letters  determined  the 
Savi  to  look  about  for  some  general  into  whose  hands 
the  whole  defence  might  be  given.  It  was  the  old 
tradition  of  employing  the  condottiero;  but  there  was 
only  one  man  alive  just  then  who  had  the  genius  and 
the  conviction  that  save  a  cause  all  but  lost;  he  was 
a  man  who  could  have  stopped  a  host  with  FalstafF's 
ragged  company,  and  he  was  at  the  gates  of  Venice. 
The  Savi  hit  upon  the  Prince  of  Nassau  as  a  possible 
captain,  but  Austria  stepped  in  and  forbade  that  he 
should  be  called. 

The  King  of  Naples  now  signed  an  armistice  with 
the  French,  and  Bonaparte  made  himself  at  home 
on  the  Venetian  mainland,  quartering  his  troops  at 
Bergamo,  Brescia,  and  Crema  without  ceremony,  and 
merely  notifying  the  Venetian  Senate  that  he  did  so, 
as  if  no  excuse  were  needed.  He  took  the  Venetian 
guns  he  found  at  Legnago  and  used  them  at  the  siege 
of  Mantua  as  if  they  were  his  own.  Bonaparte  was 
well  aware  of  the  truth  of  what  Nani  had  written  to 
the  Doge,  and  he  took  full  advantage  of  the  axiom. 
If  the  governors  of  the  cities  in  which  he  chose  to  stop 
did  not  please  him,  he  wrote  them  notes  like  the 
following :  — 

...   I  beg  you,  Sir,  to   let   me  know  what  game   we  are 

playing,  for  I  do  not  believe  you  will  allow  vour  brothers   in 

arms  [the  French  soldiers!]  to  die  without  help 

....  11/-T-.        •  1  1       •  R0m.ix.341. 

within  the  walls  or  Brescia,  or  to  be  murdered  on 

the  highroad.    If  you  are  not  able  to  keep  order  in  your  country, 


388  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xvn 

and  to  make  the  city  of  Brescia  furnish  what  is  needed  for 
establishing  hospitals  and  for  the  wants  of  the  troops,  I  shall 
have  to  take  more  efficient  measures.  —  Believe  me,  with 
feelings  of  esteem  and  consideration,  Bonaparte. 

Bonnal  says  of  him  that  he  avenged  legitimate  com- 
plaints with  a  host  of  accusations  and  denials,  and  with 
unmistakable  threats;    and  the  Venetians 

Bomial,275. 

made  excuses.     Whereupon  Bonaparte  an- 
swered that  he  would  'beat  the  Austrians  and  make 
the  Venetians  pay  for  the  war.'     Which   he  did. 
At  the  same  time  he  was  writing  to  the  Directory :  — 

...   I  am  obliged  to  be  indignant  with  the  Provvcditor,  to 

exaggerate  the  number  of  assassinations,  etc.,  in  order  that  he, 

to  calm  my  fury,  may  furnish  me  everything   I 
Rom.ix.35i.  j        u  -li  ■  •  u 

need;   they    will   continue   to   give   us   what   we 

want,  willingly  or  by  force,  until  Mantua  is  taken,  after  which 

I  shall  demand  of  them  such  contribution  as  you   may  order 

me,  which  will  not  be  in  the  least  difficult. 

If  Bonaparte  could  find  pretexts  for  accusing  the 
Venetians  of  helping  the  Austrians,  the  latter  had 
excellent  reasons  for  complaining  that  Venice  helped 
the  French.  Austria  and  France  were  the  two  stools 
between  which  half  measures  had  led  the  Republic,  and 
between  which  she  fell. 

The  position  of  the  French  army  was  not  enviable 
at  that  time  and  the  alliance  of  Venice  would  really 
have  been  worth  having,  which  was  the  reason  why  her 
obstinate  efforts  at  neutrality  exasperated  Bonaparte 
to  such  a  degree.     At  last  his  patience  gave  out  and  he 


xvn  THE  LAST  HOUR  389 

ordered  General  Baraguay  d'Hilliers,  the  father  of  the 
marshal  of  that  name  who  died  in   1878,    Twenty-fifth  0/ 
to   occupy    Bergamo,   not   as   a   guest   but  December  1706.. 
as  master.     The  Austrians  at  once  replied  by  seizing 
Palma   and  Osopo. 

The  peasants  and  the  small  communities  were  now 
driven  to  extremities;  for  the  government  had  left 
them  to  their  fate,  and  they  were  plundered  alike  by 
the  French  and  the  Austrians.  Discontent  spread 
rapidly,  and  the  rural  population  may  be  supposed 
.  to  have  been  in  the  best  possible  disposition  to 
receive  the  revolutionary  doctrines  by  which  Bona- 
parte had  already  called  into  existence  the  Cispadane 
Republic.  That  short-lived  affair  was  made  up  of  the 
cities  and  territories  of  Ferrara,  Bologna,  Modena, 
and  Reggio  d'Emilia,  and  was  momentarily  the  head- 
quarters of  republicanism.  In  spite  of  all  that  the 
remnant  of  government  in  Venice  could  do  against  it, 
its  influence  was  felt  on  Venetian  territory.  Behind 
all,    the    propaganda    of    Milan    worked 

.,  ,  Romr3H-r2. 

steadily    to    carry    out    nonaparte  s    plan 

under  General  Landrieux,  whom  he  had   deputed  to 

take  charge  of  that  end  of  it. 

Bergamo*  was  the  first  city  to  rise  and  drive  out  the 
Venetian  governor,  in  order  to  join  the  Cispadane 
Republic;  the  citv  of  Brescia  followed,  Moimenti,  Nuovi 
naturally  enough.  But  the  country  people  Sfudt,js6. 
of  the  two  provinces  still  remained  faithful  to  the 
Republic,  and  the  peasants  about  Brescia  were  so 
indignant    with    the    city   for    its    defection    that    they 


390  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xvn 

would  have  marched  upon  it  to  burn  it  down  if  they 
had  not  been  hindered  by  their  Bishop,  Dolfin.  At 
Vallesabbia,  certain  emissaries  of  the  republicans  from 
the  city  were  so  ill  received  that  they  fled  precipitately 
in  fear  of  their  lives. 

Two  days  after  the  latter  incident,  the  inhabitants 
of  the  villages  of  the  valley  met  in  a  Held 
nearNozze,  and  drew  up  the  following  dec- 
laration, which  was  approved  with  absolute  unanimity. 

Vallesabbia, 

March  2.7th,  1797. 

In  order  to  record  its  own  fidelity  and  obedience  to  its 
beloved  Prince  of  Venice,  and  taking  oath  of  perpetual  loyalty 
and  adherence  to  the  said  Prince,  this  body  votes  that  if 
persons  of  any  class  or  condition  are  found  in  this  Valley 
having  the  cockade  of  rebels  against  the  Prince  of  Venice,  and 
actually  having  that  cockade  on  their  hats,  any  one  shall  be 
free  to  arrest  them,  and  let  him  have  a  prize  of  three  hundred 
lire  piccole  for  each  one,  of  [the  funds  of]  the  Valley. 

And  let  this  present  vote  be  made  known  in  every  commune 
and  put  up  in  the  usual  and  habitual  places  for  public  notices; 
and  it  is  not  to  go  into  effect  for  three  days,  within  which  the 
parish  priests  in  their  parishes  shall  publicly  give  notice  of  it 
to  the  people.  And  if  gangs  of  rebels  against  the  Prince  of 
Venice,  or  troops  of  theirs,  enter  the  Valley,  the  communities 
comprising  the  Valley  shall  ring  the  bells  with  a  hammer 
[meaning  to  ring  them  out,  and  not  to  'chime'  them  only]  , 
and  whosoever  is  between  sixteen  and  sixty  years  old,  and 
whosoever  else  will  volunteer,  is  to  take  arms  in  the  name  of 
the  Valley  to  arrest  them  [rebels  or  troops],  and  may  also  kill 
them;  and  whoever  refuses  shall  be  punished  by  confiscation 
of  all  his  goods. 


xvn  THE  LAST   HOUR  391 

The  government  might  have  done  something  to 
encourage  people  capable  of  such  devotion;  it  might 
at  least  have  ordered  them  to  send  deputations  to  the 
capital  to  give  information  of  the  state  of  the  country. 
This  the  province  of  Verona  asked  to  be  allowed  to  do, 
through  the  Marchese  Scipione  Maffei,  in  a  petition 
which  the  Savi  suppressed,  without  even 
presenting  it  to  the  Great  Council,  because 
they  considered  that  it  might  lead  to  dangerous  dis- 
cussion. They  confined  themselves  to  recommending 
every  subject  of  the  most  Serene  Republic  to  act  with 
the  greatest  circumspection  towards  all  the  French,  as 
the  Venetians  had  no  means  of  defending  themselves 
against  the  latter's   pretensions. 

In  spite  of  the  bad  impression  made  by  such 
weakness,  more  than  thirty  thousand  men  from 
the  provinces  volunteered  to  put  down  the  republican 
rising,  but  they  had  to  be  sent  home  for  lack  of 
funds  and  weapons.  One  hundred  young  men  of  the 
burgher  class  offered  to  arm  and  support  themselves 
at  their  own  expense.  From  all  this  it  is  clear  enough 
that,  at  the  very  last,  the  descendants  of  the  nobles 
who    had    made   Venice   were    responsible    ,.. 

r  Ntevo,  Memorte 

for  her  fall.     Ippolito  Nievo  said  pithily,    aunoUuagena- 

1  i       t  7  •  •  rio,  262. 

that  the  Venetian  aristocracy  was  a  corpse 

that  could  not  revive,  wThile  the  Venetian  people  were  a 

living  race  shut  up  with  it  in  the  tomb. 

The  republican  revolution  thus  progressed  almost 
without  finding  any  resistance  and  practically  aided  and 
abetted  by  the  French  troops.     Bonaparte  was  so  sure 


392         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xvn 

of  his  plan  that  he  did  not  even  make  a  mystery  of  it 
to  the  envoys  of  the  Venetian  Republic  who  met  him 
at  Goritz.  He  actually  offered  to  pacify  the  Venetian 
provinces  for  the  modest  sum  of  a  million  of  francs 
monthly  for  six  months,  which  was  generous,  con- 
sidering that  he  alone  had  caused  all  the  disturbance. 
A  Venetian  noble  of  the  fifteenth  century  would 
certainly  have  got  the  better  of  him  in  such  a  matter 
of  business,  but  he  was  too  much  for  the  two  nobles 
with  whom  he  had  to  deal.  The  monthly  million  was 
granted,  but  on  condition  that  he  was  not  to  interfere 
in  the  civil  discord  that  distracted  the  Republic,  and  not 
to  hinder  the  government  in  its  efforts  to  reduce  the 
rebellious   cities   to   subordination. 

Such  an  attempt  was  made,  and  the  insurgents  were 
beaten  more  than  once,  and  some  of  the  ringleaders 
were  brought  to  Venice.  In  other  times 
they  would  have  been  tried  by  the  Council 
of  Ten  and  hanged  within  twenty-four  hours;  now 
they  were  merely  confined  in  the  fort  on  the  Lido,  in 
charge  of  two  nobles,  Tommaso  Soranzo  and  Domenico 
Tiepolo,  who  were  recommended  'to  treat  them 
charitably.' 

But  these  successes  so  greatly  encouraged  the  re- 
action against  the  insurrection  that  Bonaparte  feared 
Moimen/i,  Numn  lest  ne  should  lose  some  of  the  fruits  of 
st. 356,357.  njs  industrious  propaganda.  Accordingly, 
by  his  instructions,  General  Landrieux  accused  the 
Venetian  troops  of  threatening  the  French  army  in  the 
valleys  of  Bergamo,  and  ordered  the  Venetian  Governor, 


xvii  THE  LAST  HOUR  393 

Battaglia,  to  be  put  in  irons,  and  his  'accomplices'  to 
be  hanged.  These  were  mere  threats,  of  course,  but 
after  that  the  rebels  were  openly  supported  by  the 
French.  On  the  other  hand,  the  communities  that 
meant  to  remain  faithful  to  the  Republic  invoked  its 
help  a  last  time  before  returning  the  weapons  they 
had  taken  from  the  insurgents,  and  swore  that  if  they 
were  only  given  a  leader  they  would  die  to  a  man  in 
defence  of  Venice.  Even  after  the  French  had  occupied 
the  whole  Venetian  territory  the  Senate  still  received 
loyal  letters  from  Vallesabbia;  one  of  these  ended  with 
these  words  :  'Our  hearts  will  always  be  for  Saint  Mark, 
and  we  therefore  swear  to  break  any  promise  that  may 
be  before  long  got  from  us  by  force,  at  the  first  sight 
of  the  Venetian  standard  we  love.' 

The  truce  of  Judenburg  between  France  and  Austria 
was  destined  in  Bonaparte's  opinion  to  decide  the 
destinies  of  the  Republic.  Junot  appeared  suddenly 
in  Venice  on  Good  Friday,  bringing  a  despatch  from 
Bonaparte  dated  the  ninth  of  April.  A  more  violent 
and  theatrical  document  can  hardly  be  imagined.  The 
general  accuses  the  Venetians  of  rousing  the  countrv 
people  to  murder  the  French  and  ordering  a  perfect 
Massacre  of  the  Innocents.  His  magnificent  generositv 
has  met  with  'impious  perfidy'  on  the  part  of  the 
Senate.  His  adjutant  offers  peace  or  war,  and  war  is 
declared  if  the  authors  of  the  massacres  are  not  delivered. 
Observe,  that  as  there  had  been  no  massacres,  no  authors 
of  them  could  be  given  up,  and  therefore  the  declara- 
tion of  war  was  made;    Bonaparte  was  always  logical. 


394         GLEANINGS    FROM   HISTORY         xvn 

He  was  'not  a  Turk,'  he  adds;  he  was  not  even  an 
enemy.  These  were  'not  the  days  of  Charles  VIII.,' 
and  he  gave  the  Venetians  twenty-four  hours  to  realise 
the  fact  or  perish.  But  he  would  not  come  like  their 
'assassins,'  to  'lay  waste  the  lands  of  an  innocent  and 
unhappy  people.'  He  came  to  protect.  The  people 
would  'one  day  bless  even  the  crimes  which  had 
obliged  the  French  army  to  free  them  from  the  tyranny 
of  Venice.' 

Bonaparte's  name  is  still  execrated  throughout  Italy, 
and  in  a  large  part  of  the  south  'French'  means 
'abominable.'  Even  the  southern  sailors  call  a  dan- 
gerous storm  'French  weather.' 

Junot  had  been  informed  that  the  government 
could  transact  no  business  till  after  Holy  Week,  but 
he  insisted  on  being  received,  and  read  the  despatch 
before  the  Doge  and  the  Signory  in  an  imperious  tone. 
Bonaparte  possessed  a  marvellous  dramatic  sense,  and 
he  trained  his  men  to  act  his  comedies  to  perfection. 
In  the  part  of  the  Avenging  Angel,  Junot  was  terribly 
impressive. 

It  may  be  supposed  that  even  then  Venice  had  a 
choice:  she  might  submit,  or  perish  bravely  in  self- 
defence.  But  such  men  as  Ludovico  Manin  and  the 
Savi  were  not  free  to  choose.  No  weak  man  is  when 
the  strong  man  has  him  by  the  collar.  The  Signory 
was  used  to  humiliation,  and  was  past  shame,  and  it 
followed  to  the  end  the  path  it  had  chosen. 

The  truce  between  France  and  Austria  continued, 
but  only  the  possession  of  Venice  could  be  the  basis  of 


xvn  THE  LAST  HOUR  395 

a  durable  peace.  Bonaparte's  plan  was  to  exasperate 
the  Venetians  till  they  really  violated  their  neutrality, 
and  then  to  seize  the  city.  No  one  ever  comments  on  the 
morality  of  conquerors  nowadays.  Virtue  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  greatness  of  princes.  Bonaparte's 
scheme  was  odious,  of  course,  but  it  succeeded. 

It  had  been  part  of  the  comedy  to  christen  a  ship  of 
the  French  fleet  'the  Liberator  of  Italy.'  With  this 
vessel     a     certain    commander,    Laugier, 

,  „  '  Rom.x.U2sqq. 

was   despatched  to  carry  out   nonaparte  s 
stratagem.     The    ship    sailed    up    towards    the    Lido, 
stopped   a   fishing-boat,   and  took   an   old  April  twentieth, 
fisherman  for  a  pilot.     The  man  protested         I797- 
that  foreign  war  vessels  were  not  allowed  to  enter  the 
harbour.     Laugier  threatened  to  hang  him,  and  set  him 
to  con  the  wheel,  after  asking  him  many  questions  as 
to  the  vessels  of  which  Venice  disposed. 

When  the  ship  was  opposite  the  Lido  she  saluted, 
and  the  guns  of  the  San  Nicola  Fort  answered;  as 
Laugier  did  not  bring  to,  the  commander  of  the  fort, 
Domenico  Pizzamano,  sent  two  boats  alongside  him 
to  warn  him  not  to  enter,  yet  the  French  captain 
took  no  notice.  Other  French  vessels  were  following 
at  a  distance;  Pizzamano  fired  two  shots  to  warn  them 
off,  and  they  bore  away.  Laugier  now  said  he  was 
going  to  anchor,  though  he  did  not  clew  up  his  top- 
gallant sails  nor  otherwise  shorten  sail;  it  is  clear  that 
there  was  only  a  very  light  breeze  on  that  day. 

A  Venetian  galley  lay  at  her  moorings  in  the  Lido 
harbour,    and    Laugier   proceeded   to   foul    her,    inten- 


396  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY        xvn 

tionally  without  doubt,  for  he  evidently  knew  his 
business.  This  was  enough.  The  two  vessels  were 
close  alongside,  and  their  crews  were  righting  one 
another  in  an  instant.  At  the  same  time  the  cannon 
from  Fort  Sant'  Andrea  chimed  in,  and  an  indescribable 
confusion  followed.  Laugier  was  killed  by  a  ball;  the 
old  fisherman  who  had  steered  him  in  was  wounded, 
and  died  soon  afterwards.  The  Venetians  got  the 
better  of  the  fight,  and  plundered  the  French  war 
vessel  in  spite  of  Pizzamano's  desperate  efforts  to 
prevent  it.  The  French  officers  and  crew  were  handed 
over  to  the  'benevolent  custody'  of  Tommaso  Soranzo 
and  Domenico  Tiepolo. 

The  account  of  the  affair  sent  by  the  Minister, 
Lallement,  to  the  Directory  was  wholly  untrue,  of 
course;    but  Bonaparte  had  what  he  wanted. 

He  was  so  sure  of  it  that  by  the  preliminary  treaty 
of  Leoben,  preceding  the  treaty  of  Campo-Formio,  he 
April  eighteenth,  had  already  ceded  to  Austria  all  the 
^dDo'cument  Venetian  provinces  that  lay  between  the 
at377-  Po,  the  Oglio,   and  the  Adriatic;    it  was 

pretended  that  in  compensation  for  these  she  was  to 
receive  the  three  legations  of  Romagna,  Ferrara,  and 
Bologna. 

Much  of  this  preliminary  agreement  had  been  kept 
secret;  but  the  Venetian  Ambassador  in  Vienna, 
Grimani,  knew  of  the  general  tenor  of  the  document, 
and  warned  the  Senate  that  it  was  intended  to  dis- 
member the  Venetian  territory. 

The  Senate  was  roused  from  its  apathy  when  it  was 


397 


398  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY        xvn 

too  late,  and  now  sat  permanently.  Orders  were  given 
that  no  stranger  was  to  be  allowed  to  enter  the  city 
unless  bearing  official  letters,  and  no  ship  was  to  pass 
into  the  lagoons  that  did  not  fly  the  Venetian  flag. 
Some  attempt  was  made  to  get  more  vessels  ready  for 
sea. 

The  French  had  not  wasted  time,  and  a  general 
insurrection  had  broken  out  under  their  management 
in  all  the  cities  of  the  mainland.  Within  twenty-four 
hours  the  governors  of  Padua,  Verona,  and  other 
important  places  came  in  for  refuge,  as  also  the  Prov- 
veditors  of  the  army,  whose  occupation  was  gone. 

Meanwhile  two  nobles,  Francesco  Dona  and  Leon- 
ardo Giustiniani,  had  been  sent  in  haste  to  Gratz,  after 
Junot's  appearance,  and  they  were  received  by  Bona- 
parte on  the  twenty-fifth  of  April.  The  interview  that 
followed  is  highly  characteristic  of  the  man  when  it 
suited  his  ends  to  work  himself  into  a  fury.  The 
political  prisoners  were  to  be  liberated,  or  he  would 
'come  and  break  down  the  Piombi;  he  would  have  no 
Inquisition,  no  antique  barbarities.'  He  spoke  of  the 
imaginary  massacre  of  his  innocent  troops.  'His  army 
cried  vengeance,  and  he  could  not  refuse  it.'  'If  all 
the  culprits  were  not  punished,  if  the  English  Minister 
were  not  driven  away,  if  the  people  were  not  disarmed, 
if  all  the  prisoners  were  not  set  free,  if  Venice  would 
not  choose  between  France  and  England,  he  declared 
war.'  'He  would  have  no  Inquisition,  no  Senate,  he 
would  be  an  Attila  to  the  Venetian  State.'  And  much 
more  to  the  same  effect,   all  of  which   is   on   record. 


xvn  THE   LAST   HOUR  399 

The  two  Venetians  answered  sensibly,  when  they  could 
get  in  a  word,  but  Bonaparte  meant  war,  and  when  he 
meant  that  he  would  listen  to  no  one. 

Having  acted  his  scene,  he  asked  the  two  to  dinner 
and  proceeded  to  extract  information  from  them,  after 
his  manner.  His  inquiries  chiefly  concerned  the 
horrors  attributed  to  the  aristocratic  government  by 
the  very  imaginative  French  democratic  mind;  for  the 
lower  classes,  being  nearer  to  nature,  have  always  had 
much  more  imagination  than  their  social  betters,  which 
explains  their  belief  in  ghost  stories,  hidden  treasures, 
and  the  rights  of  man. 

After  dinner  Bonaparte  condescended  to  state  his 
demands.  He  wanted  twenty-two  millions  from  the 
Venetian  mint  and  all  English  drafts  deposited  in 
Venice.  That  was  all.  There  was  no  mention  of  the 
Duke  of  Mantua's  treasure,  from  which  the  envoys 
suspected  that  it  was  included  in  the  secret  treaty  of 
Leoben,  but  I  find  no  mention  of  it  in  that  curious 
document,  though  it  may  have  been  tacitly  included  in 
Article  VI.  which  provided  for  the  restitution  of 
Mantua   and  other   places   to   Austria. 

Having  thus  expressed  himself,  Bonaparte  left  the 
envoys  to  their  reflections  and  went  off  to  Bruck. 
Almost  at  the  same  time  they  received  news  of  the 
fighting  at  the  Lido,  with  instructions  to  inform  Bona- 
parte of  the  death  of  Laugier,  with  all  the  caution 
possible;  they  did  so  by  letter,  and  probably  congratu- 
lated themselves  on  not  being  materially  able  to  convey 
the  news   by  word   of  mouth;    but  they   nevertheless 


4oo         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY         xvn 

really  asked  another  audience.  He  answered  in  a 
fury,  called  Laugier's  death  an  assassination,  and 
spoke  of  them  and  the  Venetian  Senate  as  'dripping 
with  French  blood.'  If  they  had  anything  new  to  tell 
him,  he  would  receive  them,  he  said,  after  writing  on 
the  same  page  that  he  would  not. 

They  w7ent  before  him  again,  poor  men,  and  listened 
once  more  to  his  furious  language.  'Not  a  hundred 
millions  of  money,  not  all  the  gold  of  Peru,  would  now 
prevent  him  from  avenging  the  blood  of  his  men,'  and 
so  forth,  and  so  on.  This  was  the  truth,  as  he  had 
purposely  risked  shedding  it  for  the  very  purpose  of 
being  revenged. 

On  the  twenty-ninth  of  April,  French  troops  occu- 
pied the  Venetian  frontiers,  and  General  Baraguay 
d'Hilliers  entered  the  capital  with  perfect  assurance  — 
and,  it  must  be  added,  with  perfect  fearlessness  —  and 
installed  himself  in  the  best  hotel.  The  Senate  tried 
in  vain  to  ascertain  from  him  Bonaparte's  intentions; 
the  soldier  answered  that  he  was  accustomed  to  obey 
his  chiefs  without  question  and  that  he  knew  nothing  of 
their  plans.  He  had  been  told  to  come  to  Venice  and 
he  had  come. 

On  learning  that  Bonaparte  so  very  particularly 
detested  them,  the  Savi  agreed  that  it  was  no  longer 
safe  to  meet  publicly,  and  they  held  their  sittings  in  the 
Doge's  private  apartments  in  the  presence  of  the 
Counsellors,  and  the  'Savi  of  the  Mainland,'  'Savi  of 
Orders,'  'Savi  of  Writings,'  —  Savi  of  every  species. 
To  all  these  were  added  the  three  Heads  of  the  Ten. 


xvn  THE   LAST  HOUR  401 

This  last  assembly  was  a  sort  of  amplification  of  the 
Black  Cabinet   already  explained. 

They  have  been  described  as  the  sextons  of  the 
Republic,  met  together  to  arrange  the  details  of  the 
funeral.  Their  acts  and  resolutions  can  only  excite 
pity.  The  first  question  discussed  on  the  night  of 
April  thirtieth  was  whether  a  supposed  intimate  friend 
of  Bonaparte's  (Haller,  at  one  time  French  Minister  of 
Finance)  should  be  treated  with  in  order  to  calm  his 
master's  anger.  The  next  question  was,  whether  this 
proposition  might  be  discussed  at  once,  or  whether 
eight  davs  must  be  allowed  to  pass  before  beginning 
the  debate,  according  to  the  law.  A  third  question 
asked  what  measures  should  be  taken  to  inform  the 
Great  Council  of  wThat  was  happening. 

Several  hours  had  been  consumed  in  these  miserable 
quibbles,   during  which   no  attention  was   paid  to  the 

distant  booming;  of  guns   from  the   direc- 

r  -c     ■  ,  ,  ,        Ro>»- *•  *38. 

tion  of  r'usina,  when  a  messenger  brought 

a  letter  for  the  'Savio  on  Writings.'     He  passed  it  on 

anxiously  to  the  Savio  of  the  week,  who  opened  it  with 

evident  emotion.     It  was  a  message  from  Condulmer, 

in  command  of  the  flotilla  of  the  lagoons,  to  sav  that 

the   French   had   begun   operations   for   improving  the 

approaches  to  Venice,  and  that  he  was  going  to  attempt 

to  destroy  what  they  did  as  fast  as  they  worked.     It 

was  at  this  moment  that  the  Assembly  first  noticed  the 

sound  of  artillery.      In  the  frightened  silence  the  Doge 

walked  up  and  down  the  room.     'To-night  we  are  not 

safe  even  in  our  beds,'  he  said. 

VOL.  II.  —  2D 


402  GLEANINGS    FROM    HISTORY        xvn 

The  Procurator,  Pesaro,  turned  to  the  Secretary:  'I 
see  that  it  is  all  over  with  my  country,'  he  said,  in 
broad  Venetian  dialect.  '  I  can  certainly  be  of  no 
assistance.  To  an  honest  man,  every  place  is  his 
countrv;  one  may  easily  occupy  oneself  in  Switzer- 
land.' 

He  rose  as  he  finished  this  remarkable  speech, 
apparently  with  the  intention  of  proceeding  to  Switzer- 
land at  once,  but  his  colleagues  'comforted'  him,  he 
took  snuff,  and  sat  down  again  to  help  Valeressi  in 
framing  a  measure  for  calling  the  Great  Council 
together  on  the  morrow.  These  curious  details  can  be 
trusted.  Pesaro  was  afterwards,  in  fact,  the  first  to 
make  his  escape  to  Istria  and  Vienna. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  meeting  it  was  debated 
whether  it  might  not  be  possible  and  advisable  to  give 
Venice  a  democratic  form  of  government  likely  to  please 
Bonaparte,  and  the  majority  adopted  the  idea  of  intro- 
ducing  any   modifications   which   he   might  suggest. 

It  was  hoped  by  this  means  that  he  would  be  moved 
to  forgive  the  Inquisitors  and  the  captain  of  the  Lido, 
whose  punishment  he  had  demanded,  and  to  excuse  the 
Venetian  banks  from  handing  over  the  English  drafts. 

The  next  day  was  the  first  of  May,  the  anniversary 
on  which  the  Doge  had  always  paid  his  annual  visit 
to  the  Convent  of  the  Vergini,  since  the  days  of  Pier 
Candiano,  a  ceremony  which  was  always  the  occasion  of 
great  festivities  in  the  city.  But  to-day,  instead,  the 
bell  of  the  Grand  Council  was  ringing,  and  the  nobles 
assembled   anxiously.     The   Doge  explained   in   broad 


XVII 


THE   LAST  HOUR 


403 


dialect  the   situation   of  the   Republic   with    regard    to 
France.     Peace,  he  said,  must  be  made  with  Bonaparte 


at  any  price,  and  the  best  thing  the  members  of  the 
Council  could  do  was  to  say  their  prayers  and  ask  the 
help  of  Heaven  in  their  supreme  danger. 


4o4  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY        xvn 

Heaven,  as  usual  in  such  circumstances,  did  not 
help  those  who  would  not  help  themselves.  The 
Council  thought  it  had  done  wonders  when  it  voted  by 
598  to  21  that  two  deputies  should  be  sent  to  Bonaparte 
with  power  to  discuss  radical  changes  in  the  Venetian 
constitution.  The  envoys  chosen  were  Angelo  Giacomo 
Giustiniani,  who  had  been  Provveditor  extraordinary  in 
Treviso  since  the  second  of  April,  Alvise  Mocenigo, 
the  Governor  of  Udine,  and  Francesco  Dona.  They 
were  given  regular  credentials,  and  were,  as  usual, 
exhorted  to  use  the  utmost  caution  in  all  they  said. 

On  the  same  day  Bonaparte  declared  war  against 
Venice  in  his  most  furiously  bombastic  style.  The 
document  must  be  read,  not  to  be  believed,  as  most  of 
the  statements  it  contains  were  totally  untrue,  but  to 
appreciate  the  marvellous  gifts  of  the  man  of  genius 
who  composed  it.  It  is  long,  and  I  have  not  space  for 
it;  I  can  only  say  that  it  altogether  outdid  the  former 
letters  and  speeches  I  have  referred  to. 

The  deputation  found  Bonaparte  in  Treviso.  To 
the  eternal  glory  of  the  family  that  had  lost  an  hundred 
of  its  name  in  one  campaign,  Giustiniani  quietly  faced 
Bonaparte  on  every  point,  reproached  him  with  the 
shallowness  of  the  pretexts  under  which  he  justified  his 
acts  of  violence,  swore  to  the  sincerity  of  the  Venetian 
government  when  it  had  protested  that  it  had  no 
intention  of  doing  any  injury  to  the  French,  and 
concluded  by  saying  that  if  Bonaparte  required  a 
hostage  or  a  victim  he,  Giustiniani,  was  there  to  give 
his   life. 


xvn  THE   LAST   HOUR  40; 

Bonaparte  was  everything  except  a  coward.     He  was 

a  conqueror  and  a  comedian,  a  brutal  dictator  and  a 
subtle  diplomatist;  he  was  a  great  commander  and  he 
was  the  Little  Corporal.  He  was  also  as  brave  as  the 
bravest  man  in  any  of  his  armies.  Giustiniani's  speech 
affected  him  strangely,  for  he  well  knew  what  terror  he 
inspired  in  most  people.  His  sudden  admiration  for 
the  Venetian  patriot  was  as  boundless  as  everything 
else  in  his  nature,  and  broke  out  in  words  of  praise. 
He  concluded  by  promising  that  even  if  he  confiscated 
the  property  of  every  noble  in  Venice,  whatsoever 
belonged  to  Giustiniani  should  be  respected.  There 
spoke  the  man  of  the  middle  class  that  Bonaparte 
always  was.  The  gentleman  answered  proudly  that  he 
had  not  come  to  promote  his  own  interests  when  those 
of  his  countrv  were  so  desperately  at  stake. 

A  truce  of  four  days  was  signed,  within  which  time 
the  three  Inquisitors  of  State  and  the  commander  of 
the  Lido  fort  were  to  be  arrested  and  punished,  and  all 
political  prisoners  were  to  be  set  at  liberty. 

On  the  fourth  of  May  the  Doge  had  the  courage,  or 
the  cowardice,  to  propose  to  the  Great  Council  the 
arrest  of  the  Inquisitors  and  their  impeach- 

•       j     1  r»  tl  Rom-  *•  rsg- 

merit    as    required    by    Bonaparte,      1  here 
was  no  hope  for  Venice  in  any  other  course,  he  said. 
This  dastardly  measure  was  voted  by  704  votes  to  27. 
The  Inquisitors  and  the  commander  of  the  Lido  were 
arrested  and  taken  to  San  Giorgio  Maggiore,  and   all 

o  DO 

the  political  prisoners  were  released  from  the  Piombi, 
the  Pozzi,  and  the  other  prisons  of  the  city.     On  the 


4o6  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY        xvn 

following  day,  two  hundred  and  eighty-eight  Frenchmen 
who  had  been  taken  with  weapons  in  their  hands  during 
the  insurrections  in  the  provinces  were  handed  over  to 
Baraguay  d'Hilliers  in  Venice. 

Bonaparte  was  now  sure  that  he  had  only  to  show 
himself  in  order  to  be  master  of  the  city.  The 
Venetians  also  made  haste  to  present  Bonaparte's 
'friend,'  Haller,  with  a  little  present  of  six  thousand 
sequins  in  bullion,  in  the  hope  that  he  would  use  his 
kind  offices  with  the  great  man. 

'I  beg  you/  Bonaparte  wrote  about  that  time  to  the 

Directory,  'to  order  the  citizen  Haller,  a  scoundrel  who 

Bmnai,       nas    come    here    to    steal,    to    present    his 

Chute, 287.  accounts  to  the  head  manager'  ('ordonna- 
teur  en  chef). 

So  much  for  Bonaparte's  'friend.'  The  Republic 
also  offered  the  most  profuse  hospitality  to  Madame 
Baraguay  d'Hilliers,  in  the  hope  that  she  would  soften 
her  husband's   harsh   temper. 

By  this  time  Bonaparte  knew  as  well  as  Condulmer 
himself  that  the  Venetian  fleet  was  miserably  manned, 
and  that  the  city  must  yield  at  once  if  besieged,  and  he 
thought  it  quite  useless  to  receive  any  more  envoys. 
Besides,  he  knew  that  his  propaganda  had  succeeded  in 
the  capital  itself;  his  paid  agents  had  done  their  work 
well,  and  it  had  been  bravely  seconded  by  the  manifest 
incompetence  of  the  government  which  had  exasperated 
all  classes.  It  is  said  that  there  were  fifteen  thousand 
republicans  ready  to  answer  the  first  signal  as  soon  as 
it  should  be  given  by  Villetard,  the    Secretary  of  the 


XVII 


Jill-.    LAST    H()l  R 


407 


French  Legation.     These  were  not  by  any  means  all 
of  the  people,  for  many  ladies  of  the  nobility  had  been 


SO-CALLED    HOUSE    OF    DESDE.MONA 


spending  their  time  in  making  tricolour  cockades,  and 
the   government   knew   it. 


4o8  GLEANINGS    FROM    HISTORY        xvn 

The  French  no  longer  took  the  trouble  to  conceal 
the  preparations  they  were  making  for  a  revolution. 
A  wholesale  grocer  who  played  a  very  suspicious  part 
in  the  whole  affair,  Tommaso  Zorzi,  was  dining  with 
Villetard,  and  heard  several  Frenchmen  speaking  of  the 
revolution  that  was  arranged  for  the  next  day;  it  was 
intended  to  set  up  a  tree  of  liberty  in  the  Square  of 
Saint  Mark's  and  to  declare  the  fall  of  the  aristocratic 
government.  When  every  one  else  was  gone,  Zorzi 
implored  Villetard  to  put  off  firing  the  train,  and 
explained  that  a  large  part  of  the  populace  would  side 
with  their  old  masters.  The  French  Secretary  would 
promise  nothing,  and  on  leaving  him  Zorzi  hastened  to 
the  ducal  palace  and  was  received  by  the  Doge  in  spite 
of  the  late  hour. 

He  told  what  he  had  heard.  The  Doge  sent  at 
once  for  Pietro  Dona,  and  the  two  bade  Zorzi  obtain 
from  Villetard  a  written  declaration  of  the  conditions 
on  which  he  would  consent  to  give  up  the  revolution. 
On  the  following  day  Zorzi  and  his  friend  Spada 
appeared  before  the  Savi  with  a  paper  which  they  said 
they  had  drawn  up  in  the  presence  of  Villetard,  who  had 
refused  to  write  anything  himself. 

The  impression  one  gets  in  reading  this  document 
is  that  Zorzi   and  his  shadow  were  in  the  trick   with 

Rom.x.386     Villetard.     The   paper  calls  them  'media- 

for  the  text,  torS5'  talks  of  '  pacifically  changing  the  aris- 
tocratic forms  of  government,'  'leaving  open  to  the  sight 
of  the  public  the  prisons  called  the  Piombi  and  Pozzi,' 
abolishing   capital   punishment,    setting    up    a    tree   of 


xvn  THE  LAST   HOUR  409 

liberty  in  the  Square  of  Saint  Mark's,  publicly  burning 
the  insignia  of  the  old  government,  a  universal  amnesty, 
and  a  Te  Deum  in  Saint  Mark's,  where  the  image  of 
the  Virgin  Mary  was  to  be  exhibited. 

The  paper  also  named  the  provisional  government, 
in  which  the  grocer  and  his  shadow  were  to  occupy  "high 
positions. 

This  stuff  was  not  read  by  Zorzi  before  the  assembly. 
The  Doge  deputed  Pietro  Dona  and  Francesco  Battagia 
to  hear  him  in  a  neighbouring;  room.  Dona  dismissed 
him  with  the  remark  that  the  government  would  wait 
to  discuss  such  propositions  until  they  were  officially 
laid  before  the  Venetian  envoys  by  Bonaparte  himself. 

Then  Dona  returned  to  the  hall  and  communicated 
the  contents  of  Zorzi's  paper  to  the  government.  The 
effect  was  terrific.  A  few  voices  protested  that  no 
attention  should  be  paid  to  such  an  informal  proposi- 
tion, but  terror  prevailed,  and  Dona  and  Battagia  were 
charged  to  go  at  once  to  Villetard  to  ask  him  to  put 
off  his  revolution  till  the  envoys  should  return  from 
their  interview  with  Bonaparte.  Villetard,  for  reasons 
known  to  himself,  granted  the  government  a  respite  of 
four  days. 

Meanwhile  it  was  thought  wise  to  dismiss  the 
Slavonic  troops,  yielding  in  this  to  one  of  the  demands 
expressed  in  Zorzi's  paper.  Their  presence  'irritated' 
Villetard.  They  were  accordinglv  ordered  home  un- 
der the  command  of  Niccolo  Morosini,  but  they  did 
not  leave  at  once. 

On    the    twelfth    of   May   the    Great    Council    met. 


4io  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY        xvn 

Early  in  the  morning  Villetard  had  informed  Battagia 
that  the  Venetian  envoys  sent  to  Bonaparte  had  refused 
to  accept  a  democratic  and  representative  government, 
but  that  the  French  meant  to  obtain  it  by  force  unless 
the  aristocracy  would  resign  its  powers.  It  was  Haller 
who  had  brought  the  news  to  Villetard  after  accepting 
a  bribe  of  six  thousand  sequins  a  few  days  earlier.  An 
American  politician  once  defined  a  scoundrel  as  'a  man 
who  will  not  stay  bought.' 

Dona  came  back  with  an  official  letter  from  Villetard 
to  the  Doge,  which  contained  Bonaparte's  ultimatum. 
The  city  was  in  a  state  of  nervous  excitement  that  must 
break  into  action  before  long;  the  members  of  the 
Council  were  already  in  terror  of  their  lives  while  they 
stood  waiting  for  the  hour  of  meeting.  Even  then, 
everything  had  to  be  done  according  to  tradition.  The 
patricians  were,  no  doubt,  devising  more  concessions 
to  be  made  to  Bonaparte,  as  they  moved  towards  the 
ducal  palace,  and  most  of  them  were  ready  to  sacrifice 
everything,  including  their  honour,  in  exchange  for 
personal  safety.  The  last  of  the  Slavonic  soldiers  were 
embarking  under  the  direction  of  the  Arsenal  men; 
there  were  republican  conspirators  everywhere,  and 
they  found  their  way  even  to  the  Doge's  private 
apartments. 

The  Council  met  at  the  usual  hour,  and  the  roll 
was  called.  Only  537  members  were  present,  whereas 
600  constituted  a  quorum.  It  is  possible  that  the 
many  absent  members  had  hoped  to  obstruct  all  pro- 
ceedings by  keeping  away,  for  to  the  last  the  minutest 


xvii  THE   LAST   HOUR  411 

rules  had  been  observed.     But  the  members  who  had 
assembled  decided  that  they  had  a   right  to  act. 

The  Doge  opened  the  sitting,  pale  and  overcome. 
Painfully,  and  in  his  Venetian  dialect,  he  recapitulated 
the  acts  of  the  Consulta  of  Savi  and  others,  who  had 
taken  charge  of  affairs  on  the  thirtieth  of  April.  His 
miserable  speech  was  followed  by  the  reading  of  the 
report  of  Dona  and  Battagia,  Haller's  letter,  and  other 
documents. 

The  Secretary,  Valentin  Marin,  then  read  the  measure 
which  was  brought  before  the  Council. 

The  Bill  had  the  old  sanctimonious  tone.  'The 
principal  purpose  of  preserving  religion,'  etc.,  were  the 
first  words;  the  measure  was,  that  the  Great  Council 
should  accept  'the  proposed  provisional  representative 
government.' 

The  Secretary  had  finished  reading  the  Bill,  and  was 
just  beginning  his  comments  on  it,  when  the  sound  of 
a  discharge  of  musketry  rang  sharply  through  the 
ancient  hall.  The  patricians  rushed  to  the  doors.  One 
voice  called  them  back. 

'Divide!     Divide!'  it  cried,  above  the  din. 

To  the  last  gasp  formality  bound  them.  Hastilv, 
but  not  informally,  they  went  through  the  form  of 
voting.  The  Bill  to  accept  the  democratic  government 
was  passed  by  512  yeas  to  30  nays  and  5  blanks. 

Then,   in  the  twinkling  of  an   eye,  the         n97% 
hall  was  silent  and  empty.  May  twelfth. 


XVIII 


CONCLUSION 


The  discharge  of  musketry  which  had  frightened  the 
Great  Council  out  of  its  senses  had  been  only  the  part- 
TasHni,  under  ing  salute  of  the  Slavonic  soldiers  as  they 
■  sanBartoiomeo:  sajle(]  out  Gf  the  harbour.  It  was  the  last 
mark  of  respect  the  Venetians  of  Venice  received,  and  it 
was  by  a  dramatic  coincidence  that  it  was  offered  at  the 
very  instant  when  the  Republic  ended.  Every  one  has 
read  how  the  Doge  went  back  to  his  own  room  and 

412 


•    *?  i'  T> 

§ 

IS*  • 


A   GATEWAY 


413 


4i4  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY       win 

handed  his  ducal  bonnet  to  his  servant,  saying  that  he 
should   not  need   it  again. 

What  has  been  less  noticed  by  historians  is  that 
General  Salimbeni,  who  knew  that  the  crowd  was 
waiting  to  know  what  had  taken  place,  put  his  head  out 
of  a  window  and  shouted  'Viva  la  Liberta';  and  that 
when  no  one  broke  the  silence  that  followed,  he  took 
breath  again  and  shouted  'Viva  San  Marco,'  where- 
upon the  multitude  took  up  the  cry  and  cheered  till 
they  were  hoarse,  and  the  old  flag  of  Saint  Mark 
was  hoisted  everywhere,  and  the  populace  took  it 
into  its  head  to  burn  down  the  houses  of  Dona  and 
Battagia  and  the  grocer  Zorzi,  and  though  they  were 
hindered,  they  did  plunder  and  burn  the  dwellings 
of  a  number  of  burgher  families  that  had  played  a 
double  game  and  had  helped  to  bring  on  the  final 
catastrophe. 

In  the  midst  of  this  confusion  well-armed  republican 
gangs  appeared  in  all  directions,  and  during  the  night 
between  the  twelfth  and  the  thirteenth  of  May  there 
was  a  hideous  tumult.  The  last  time  that  Venetian 
cannon  was  fired  by  Venetian  orders,  it  was  pointed 
at  Venetians. 

On  the  fifteenth,  the  French  occupied  the  city  as 
conquerors.     On  the  sixteenth,  two  notices  were  put 

Moimenti,      up  in  the  Square  of  Saint  Mark's.     The 

Nuovistudi.  £rst  simply  announced  that  the  aristocratic 
government  yielded  up  its  powers  to  a  provisional 
Municipality  which  would  sit  in  the  hall  of  the  Great 
Council;    and  this  was  the  last  public  document  which 


xvm  CONCLUSION  415 

began    with    the    words,    'The    Most    Serene    Prince 

announces,'  etc. 
The  other  informed  the  public  that  the  provisional 

Municipality  of  Venice  declared  the  (ireat  Council 
to  have  'deserved  well  of  the  nation'  because  it  had 
abdicated;  it  thanked  particularly  the  members  of  the 
late  government  which  had  put  down  the  riot  on  the 
night  of  the  twelfth;  and  it  went  on  to  declare  a 
'solemn  amnesty'  for  all  political  misdeeds,  and  so 
forth,  and  so  on. 

Then  came  the  usual  French  nonsense  about  liberty, 
equality,  brotherhood,  peace,  the  rights  of  man,  and 
the  like;  all  of  which  might,  perhaps,  be  excused 
on  the  ground  of  mistaken  and  foolish  sentiment,  if  we 
did  not  know  that  Bonaparte  was  even  then  almost 
in  the  act  of  selling  his  newly  found,  free,  and  e(|ii;il 
brothers  into  slavery  to  Austria,  then  the  most  really 
absolute  despotism  in  Europe. 

The  whole  affair  was  a  horrible  farce.  The  new 
Municipality  decided  to  preserve  the  Lion  of  Saint 
Mark  as  the  national  symbol,  but  for  the  words  '  Pax 
tibi  Marce'  inscribed  on  the  book  under  the  Lion's 
paw  were  substituted  the  words  'Rights  and  Duties  of 
Man  and  Citizen.'  The  gondoliers  observed  that  Saint 
Mark  had  at  last  turned  over  a  new  leaf. 

The  Lion,  however,  was  soon  thrown  down  from 
his  column,  and  was  broken  into  more  than  eighty 
pieces  on  the   pavement.     On   the   fourth 

r    t  u  r  ri  •      j    ■         Rom.  x.  219. 

or  June  the  tree  of   liberty  was  raised  in 

the  middle  of  the  Square.     Around   it  were  grouped 


416         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY       xvm 

emblems  of  the  sciences  and  arts.     Fagots  were  heaped 

up  near  by,  to  make. a  fire  in  which  the  Golden  Book 

and  the  ducal  insignia  were  solemnly  burned  between 

two  statues  representing  Freedom  and  Equality.     Inane 

Moimenti,       verses  were  inscribed  on  the  pedestals  of 

Nuovi  studi.     t|lese  images.     Lest   I   should   be  thought 

to  exaggerate  their  atrociously  bad   literary  quality   I 

give  the  original  Italian. 

One   ran: — 

Depono  la  tirannide, 
Sollevo  l'innocente, 
Ognor  lieto  e  ridente 
II  popol  mio  sara. 

The  other  said  :  — 

II  libro  d'  oro  abbruciasi 
L'accende  il  rco  delitto, 
All'  uom  resta  il  suo  dritto 
La  dolce  liberta. 

The   Procuratie,    both   the   old    and   the   new,   were 

renamed,    according    to    the    revolutionary    dictionary, 

Mutineiu,  uit.  ' Gallel7  of  Liberty,'  'Gallery  of  Equality.' 

2/8;  also      In  the  course  of  the  month  of  June  began 

the  trial  of  the  three  Inquisitors,  Agostino 

Barbarigo,    Angelo     Maria     Gabrieli,     and     Catterino 

Corner,    and    of    Pizzamano,    the    commander   of   the 

Lido    fort.       Even    Bonaparte    was    obliged    to    admit 

that  there  was  nothing  against  them,  but  he  would  not 

allow  them  to  be  acquitted;    he  thought  it  better  policy 

to   pardon   them   'in   consideration   of  their   advanced 

age.'     His  letter  on  the  subject  is  dated  the  fourth  of 


xviii  CONCLUSION  417 

October.  But  Pizzamano,  though  declared  free,  was 
still  kept  in  prison  at  Bonaparte's  pleasure,  and  on  the 
twenty-sixth  of  October  sent  a  petition  directly  to  the 
latter.  Bonaparte  sent  it  on  to  General  Serrurier,  in 
Venice,  with  an  order  for  the  man's  liberation  written 
in  the  margin. 

Bonaparte  had  kept  up  his  comedy  to  the  very  last. 
On  the  eighth  of  October,  General  Balland  had  given  the 
Venetians,  in  his  chief's  name,  the  most  ample  assur- 
ances of  attachment  and  devotion. 

On  the  seventeenth,  nine  davs  later,  by  the  treaty 
of  Campo-Formio,  Bonaparte  sold  Venice  and  the 
whole  Venetian  territory  to  the  Emperor  of  Austria, 
including  Dalmatia  and  Istria,  in  exchange  for  the 
Ionian  Islands,  the  Cisalpine  Republic,  the  Duchy  of 
Modena,  and  the  provinces  of  Lombardy  as  far  as  the 
Adige  and  Mantua. 

Having  got  his  price  for  the  dead  body,  Bonaparte 
proceeded  to  strip  it  of  everything  valuable,  so  far  as 
he  could,  before  handing  it  over.  The  horses  of  Saint 
Mark's  were  taken  down  from  the  facade  of  the  basilica, 
the  most  valuable  pictures,  parchments,  and  books  were 
packed,   and   all  was   sent  to   Paris. 

The  farce  of  freedom  was  over,  and  the  bitterness 
of  reality  came  back,  harder  to  bear,  perhaps,  but  as 
much  more  honourable,  as  suffering  is  more  dignified 
than  drunken  rioting.  On  the  eighteenth  of  January 
1798  the  Austrian  garrison  took  possession  of  Venice. 

Before  closing  these  pages,  I  shall  go  back  a  few 
months  and  shall  translate  Giustina   Renier  Michiel's 


418  CiLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY       xviij 

touching  account  of  the  scene  which  took  place  in 
Dalmatia,  in  the  preceding  month  of  August,  when  the 
Austrians  came  by  sea  to  take  possession  of  the 
country. 

On  the  twenty-second  of  August,  Rukavina  [the  Austrian 

general]  arrived  with  a  fleet  and  a  thousand  soldiers  and  landed 

at  Pettana,  a  mile  and  a  half  from  Perasto.     The 
<;.  A'.  Michiel,  >  V.  . 

Origini.    Com-    Ualmatians,  taken   by  surprise,  and   seeing  that 
pare  also       tncv   na(]    nothing    more    to    hope,  resolved    to 

b!om.x.249.  ,  ,        ,  ,  L  ,        ,       r 

render  the  last  honours  to  the  great  standard  or 
Saint  Mark.  To  this  end  the  people  of  Perasto,  and  of  the 
neighbouring  country,  and  others,  assembled  before  the  palace 
of  the  Captain  in  command  ;  and  he,  with  twelve  soldiers 
armed  with  sabres,  and  two  colour-sergeants,  went  to  the  hall 
where  the  standard  was,  and  the  colours  carried  in  the  field, 
which  Venice  had  entrusted  many  centuries  ago  to  the  valour 
and  loyalty  of  the  brave  Dalmatians.  They  were  now  to  take 
away  those  dearly  loved  flags;  but  in  the  very  moment  of  do- 
ing what  it  broke  their  hearts  to  do,  their  strength  failed  them, 
and  they  could  only  shed  a  flood  of  tears. 

The  throng  of  people  who  waited  in  the  Square,  not  seeing 
any  one  come  out  again,  knew  not  what  to  think.  So  one  of 
the  judges  of  the  town  was  sent  up  to  ascertain  the  cause ;  but 
he,  too,  was  so  much  moved  that  his  presence  [in  the  hall] 
only  increased  the  grief  of  the  others.  At  last  the  Captain, 
controlling  himself  of  sheer  necessity,  made  the  painful  effort  ; 
he  took  down  the  flags  from  the  place  where  they  were  hung 
and  attached  them  to  two  pikes  ;  and  he  handed  them  to  the 
two  colour-sergeants,  and  they  and  the  soldiers,  led  by  the 
lieutenant,  marched  out  of  the  hall;  and  after  them  the  Cap- 
tain, the  Judge,  and  all  the  rest.  As  soon  as  the  well-beloved 
standard  was  seen,  the  grief  and  tears  of  the  multitude  were 
universal.      Men,  women,  and   children   all   sobbed   and   their 


xviii  CONCLUSION  419 

tears  rolled  down  ;  and  nothing  was  heard  hut  the  complaint 
of  mourning,  no  douhtful  proof  of  the  hereditary  devotion  of 
that  generous  nation  to  its  Republic. 

When  the  sad  procession  reached  the  Square,  the  Captain 
unfastened  the  flags  from  the  pikes  and  at  the  same  time  the 
ensign  of  Saint  Mark  on  the  fort  was  hauled  down,  and  a  salute 
of  twenty  guns  was  fired.  Two  armed  vessels  that  guarded 
the  port  answered  with  eleven  guns,  and  all  the  merchant 
vessels  saluted  also  ;  this  was  the  last  good-bve  of  sorrowing 
glory  to  the  valour  of  a  nation.  The  sacred  colours  were 
placed  upon  a  metal  salver  and  the  lieutenant  received  them  in 
the  presence  of  the  Judge,  of  the  Captain,  and  of  the  people. 
Then  all  marched  with  slow  and  melancholy  steps  to  the 
cathedral.  There  they  were  received  by  the  clergy  and  its 
chief,  to  whom  the  sacred  trust  was  delivered,  and  he  placed 
it  on  the  high  altar.  Then  the  Captain  commanding  spoke 
the  following  words,  which  were  again  and  again  interrupted 
by  quick  sobbing,  and  streaming  tears  that  came  from  men's 
hearts  more  truly  than  from  their  eyes  :  — 

'  In  this  cruel  moment,'  he  said,  '  that  rends  our  hearts  for 
the  fatal  destruction  of  the  Most  Serene  Venetian  Government, 
in  this  last  expression  of  our  love  and  faith,  with  which  we  do 
honour  to  the  colours  of  the  Republic,  let  us  at  least  rind 
some  consolation,  dear  fellow-citizens,  in  the  thought  that 
neither  our  past  deeds,  nor  those  we  have  done  in  these  recent 
times,  have  led  to  this  sad  office,  which,  for  us,  is  now  become 
a  good  deed.  Our  sons  will  know  from  us,  and  history  will 
teach  all  Europe,  that  Perasto  upheld  to  the  last  breath  the 
glory  of  the  Venetian  flag,  honouring  it  and  bathing  it  in 
universal  and  most  bitter  tears.  Fellow-citizens,  let  us  freely 
pour  out  our  grief;  but  amidst  the  last  solemn  thoughts  with 
which  we  seal  the  glorious  career  that  has  been  ours  under 
the  Most  Serene  Government  of  Venice,  let  us  turn  to  these 
well-loved  colours  and  cry  out  to  them,  in  our  sorrow,  "  Dear 


42o         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY       xviii 

Hag  that  has  been  ours  three  hundred  and  seventy-seven  years 
without  a  break,  our  faith  and  courage  have  ever  kept  vou 
unstained  both  on  the  sea  and  wheresoever  you  were  called  to 
face  your  enemies,  which  were  the  enemies  of  the  Church 
also,  p'or  three  hundred  and  seventy-seven  years  our  goods, 
our  blood,  and  our  lives  have  always  been  devoted  to  you,  and 
since  you  have  been  with  us,  and  we  with  you,  we  have  ever 
been  happv,  and  famous  on  the  sea,  and  victorious  on  land.  No 
man  ever  saw  us  put  to  flight  with  vou  ;  with  you  none  were 
ever  found  to  overcome  us.  If  these  most  wretched  times  of 
rash  action,  of  corrupt  manners,  of  dissensions  and  of  lawless 
opinions  that  offend  nature  and  the  law  of  nations  had  not 
ruined  you  in  Italv,  our  goods,  our  blood,  our  lives  should  still 
be  yours ;  and  rather  than  have  seen  you  overcome  and  dis- 
honoured, our  courage  and  our  faith  would  have  chosen  to 
be  buried  with  you.  But  since  we  can  do  nothing  more  for 
you  than  this,  let  your  honoured  grave  be  in  our  hearts,  let  our 
desolation  be  your  highest  praise."  ' 

Then  the  Captain  went  up  and  took  a  corner  of  the  flag 
and  put  it  to  his  lips  as  if  he  could  not  let  it  leave  them  ;  and 
all  thronged  to  kiss  it  most  tenderly,  washing  it  with  their  hot 
tears.  But  as  the  sad  ceremony  had  to  come  to  an  end  at 
last,  these  dear  colours  were  laid  in  a  chest,  which  the  Rector 
placed  in  a  reliquary  beneath  the  high  altar. 


THE   DOGES    OF   VENICE 

(according  to  romanin) 

Note.  —  The  Venetian  year  began  on  March  first,  whence  the  frequent  discrepancies 
betiveen  the  dates  given  />v  different  writers.  In  this  ivork  every  effort  has  been 
made  to  bring  all  dates  under  the  usual  reckoning. 


I. 

Paolo  Lucio  Anafesto  .     . 

elected 

1  697  d. 

717  Seat  in  Heraclea. 

II. 

Marcello  Tegaliano      .     . 

" 

717  " 

726 

III. 

c< 

726  " 

737  (murdered).  Seat  in 
Malamocco. 

(From  737  to  742,  military 

governors  called  '  Magistri  Militum.') 

IV. 

Tebdato  Orso      .... 

elected  742  — 

"755    (blinded  and  deposed). 

V. 

ft 

755  — 

-  756   (blinded  and  exiled  1. 

VI. 

Domenico  Monegario . 

" 

756~ 

-  764   (blinded  and  deposed). 

VII. 

Maurizio  Galbaio    . 

ft 

764  d, 

,787 

VIII. 

Giovanni  Galbaio  and  his 

son  Maurizio      .     .     . 

<c 

7S7- 

-  804  (both  deposed). 

IX. 

Obelerio    with    his    sons 

Beato  and  Costantino 

" 

804  d 

,  811  (the  father  put  to 
death  as  a  traitor  . 

X. 

Agnello  Partecipazio   .     . 

" 

811  " 

827  Seat  henceforth  in 
Rialto. 

XI. 

Giustiniano  Partecipazio  . 

" 

827  " 

829 

XII. 

Giovanni  Partecipazio  I.  . 

" 

829- 

-836   (deposed). 

XIII. 

Pietro  Tradonico 

(« 

836  d. 

864   (murdered). 

XIV. 

Orso  Partecipazio  I.     .     . 

" 

864  " 

881 

XV. 

Giovanni  Partecipazio  II. 

" 

881  - 

■888  (abdicated). 

XVI. 

Pietro  Candiano  I.  .     .     . 

" 

888  d. 

888  (killed  in  battle  with 
piral 

XVII. 

Pietro  Tribuno    .... 

" 

888  " 

912 

XVIII. 

Orso      Partecipazio      II. 

912  — 

932  (abdicated  and  died  a 
monk). 

421 


422 


GLEANINGS    FROM   HISTORY 


XIX.  Pietro  Candiano  II.  .     .  elected  932  d. 

XX.  Pietro  Partecipaziol  Badoer)  "  939  " 

XXI.   Pietro  Candiano  III.      .        "  942  " 

XXII.  Pietro  Candiano  IV.      .       "  959  " 

XXIII.  Pietro  Orseolo  I.  .    .    .       "  976  — 


XXIV.  Vital  Candiano 


XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 

XXIX. 
XXX. 

XXXI. 

XXXII. 

XXXIII. 

XXXIV. 

XXXV. 

XXXVI. 

XXXVII. 

XXXVIII. 

XXXIX. 
XL, 


Tribuno  Memmo  . 
Pietro  Orseolo  1 1. 
Ottone  Orseolo 

Pietro  Centrani^o 
Domenico  Flabianici 
Domenico  Contarini 
Domenico  Selvo  . 
Vital  Falier .  .  . 
Vital  Michiel  I.  . 
Ordelafo  Falier    . 

Domenico  Michiel 
Pietro  Polani     .     . 
Domenico  Morosini 
Vital  Michiel  II.    . 
Sebastian  Ziani 
Orio  Mastropiero  . 


XLI.  Enrico  Dandolo    . 

XLII.  Pietro  Ziani       .     . 

XI, III.  Jacopo  Tiepolo 

XLIV.  Marin  Morosini     . 

XL\r.  Renier  Zeno     .     . 

XLVI.  Lorenzo  Tiepolo  . 

XI.VII.  Jacopo  Contarini  . 

XLVI  1 1.  Giovanni  Dandolo 

XLIX.  Pietro  <  iradenigo  . 

L.  Marin  Zorzi      .     . 

LI.  Giovanni  Soranzo 

LI  I.  Francesco  Dandolo 

LIU.  P.artolommeo  ( Iradenigo 

LIV.  Andrea  Dandolo  .     .     . 


939 
942 

959 

976    (murdered  ). 

97S  (abdicated  and  died 
a  monk,  with  the 
reputation    of    a 

saint). 

978  —  979     (abdicated   and  be- 

came a  monk). 

979  <!•  991 
991  "  1008 

1008  —  1026  (exiled  to  Constan- 
tinople). 

1026 —  1032  (driven  out). 

1032  d.  1043 

1043  "  1071 

1071  "  1085 

1085  "  1096 

1096  "  1 102 

1 102  "  1 1 18  (died  in  the  Hun- 
garian war). 

1 1 18  "  1 1 30 

1 130  "  1 148 

1 148  "  1 1 56 

1 156  "  1 1 72  (killed). 

1172  "  1178 

1 1 78 — 1 192  (abdicated  and  be- 
came a  monk). 

1 192  d.  1205  (died  in  Constanti- 
nople). 

1205  —  1229  (abdicated). 

1229 —  1249  (abdicated). 

1249  d.  1253 

1253  "  1268 

1268  "  1275 

1275  —  1280  (abdicated). 

1280  d.  1289 

1289  "  131 1 

1311  "  1312 

1312  "  1329 
L329  "  1339 
L339  "  L343 
L343  "  L354 


THE   DOGES   OF   VENICE 


4*3 


LV. 

LVI. 

LVII. 

LVIII. 

LIX. 

LX. 

LXI. 

LX1I. 

LXIII. 

LXIV. 

LXV. 

LXVI. 

LXVII. 

LXVIII. 

LXIX. 

LXX. 

LXXI. 

LXXII. 

LXXIII. 

LXXIV. 

LXXV. 

LXXVI. 

LXXVII. 

I. XXVIII. 

LXXIX. 

LXXX. 

LXXXI. 

1.  XXXII. 

I.  XXXIII. 

LXXXIV. 

LXXXV. 

I.XXXVI. 

I.  XXXVII. 

LXXXVIII. 

I, XXXIX. 

xc. 

XCI. 

XCII. 

XCIII. 

XCIV. 

X<  \'. 

XCVI. 

XCVII. 


Marin  Falier     .     .     . 

elected 

1354  <!• 

1355  (beheaded  April  17). 

Giovanni  Gradenigo . 

" 

»355  " 

135° 

Giovanni  Doltin    .     . 

" 

1356  « 

1361 

Lorenzo  Celsi  .     .     . 

" 

1361  " 

1365 

Marco  Coiner  .     .     . 

" 

1365  " 

1368 

Andrea  Contarini .     . 

" 

1368  " 

1383 

Michel  Morosini  „     . 

" 

1383  " 

1384 

Antonio  Venier     .     . 

u 

1384  " 

1400 

Michel  Steno    .     . 

u 

1400  " 

1413 

Tommaso  Mocenigo 

" 

I4L3  " 

1423 

Francesco  Foscari 

1423- 

•  1457  (deposed,  and  died  a 
few  days  later). 

Pasquale  Malipiero 

ft 

1457  d 

1462 

Cristoforo  Moro    ,     . 

" 

1462  " 

1471 

Niccolo  Tron    .     . 

ft 

1471  " 

1474 

Niccolo  Marcello  . 

" 

M74  " 

1474 

Pietro  Mocenigo  .     . 

" 

1474  " 

1476 

Andrea  Vendramin 

" 

1476  " 

1478 

Giovanni  Mocenigo  . 

" 

1478  " 

1485 

Marco  Barbarigo  . 

" 

1485  " 

i486 

Agostino  Barbarigo 

" 

i486  " 

1501 

Leonardo  Loredan 

" 

1501  - 

1521 

Antonio  Grimani  . 

" 

1521  " 

1523 

Andrea  Gritti    .     . 

" 

1523  " 

1538 

Pietro  Lando    .     , 

" 

1538  " 

1545 

Francesco  Donato 

ft 

1545  " 

!553 

Marcantonio  Trevisa 

1       " 

1553  " 

1554 

Francesco  Venier  . 

" 

1554  " 

'556 

Lorenzo  Priuli . 

" 

,556  « 

1559 

Girolamo  Priuli 

" 

1559  " 

1567 

Pietro  Loredan 

ft 

1567  " 

I57° 

Aloise  (Luigi )  Mocen 

igo  " 

1570  " 

1577 

Sebastian  Venier  . 

" 

1577  " 

1578 

Niccolo  Da  Ponte 

" 

1578  » 

1585 

Pasquale  Cicogna . 

" 

1585  « 

1595 

Marin  Grimani 

" 

1595  " 

1606 

Leonardo  Dona.    . 

" 

1606  " 

161 2 

Marcantonio  Menun 

)      " 

1612  " 

1615 

Giovanni  Bembo  . 

ft 

1615  » 

1618 

Niccolo  Dona  . 

" 

1618  " 

1618 

Antonio  Priuli  .     . 

" 

1618  " 

1623 

Francesco  Contarini 

a 

1623  " 

1624 

Giovanni  Corner    . 

" 

1624  ' 

1630 

Niccolo  Contarini 

a 

1630  « 

1631 

424 


GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 


XCVIII. 

Francesco  Erizzo  .  •  . 

elected  1631  d 

1646 

XCIX. 

Krancesco  Molin  . 

"        1646  " 

1655 

c. 

Carlo  Contarini     .     . 

"        i655  " 

1656 

CI. 

Francesco  Corner .     . 

"        1656  " 

1656 

CII. 

Bertuccio  Valier    . 

«        1656  " 

1658 

cm. 

Giovanni  Pesaro    . 

"        1658  " 

1659 

CIV. 

1  >omenico  Contarini  . 

"        1659  " 

1674 

cv. 

Niccold  Sagredo  .     . 

"        1674  " 

1676 

CVI. 

Aloise  Contarini    . 

"        1676  " 

1683 

CVII. 

Marcantonio  ( iiustinian 

"        1683  " 

1688 

(VIII. 

Francesco  Morosini    . 

1 688  " 

1694 

CIX. 

Silvestro  Valier      .     . 

1694  " 

1700 

ex. 

Aloise  Mocenigo  . 

"       1700  " 

1709 

CXI. 

Giovanni  Corner   . 

1709  " 

1722 

CXII. 

Aloise  Sebastian  Mocen 

go    "         1722   " 

1732 

CXIII. 

Carlo  Ruzzini    . 

"     1732  " 

'735 

CX IV. 

Luigi  Pisani 

"     1735  " 

1 741 

cxv. 

Pietro  Crimani 

1741  " 

I752 

CXVI. 

Francesco  Loredan    . 

"     1752  " 

1762 

CXVII. 

Marco  Foscarini    .     . 

"       1762  " 

1763 

CXVIII. 

Aloise  Mocenigo  . 

"     1763  " 

1779 

CXIX. 

Paolo  Renier    . 

"     1779  " 

1788 

CXX. 

Ludovico  Manin   .     , 

"     I7S8- 

1797  (abdicated    with    the 
aristocratic  govern- 
ment). 

TABLE  OF  THE   PRINCIPAL  DATES   IN 
VENETIAN  HISTORY 


A.D. 

421  (about)  Venice    founded    by    fugitives    from    Aquileia,    Altinum,    and 

Padua.      (According  to  tradition  on  March  25,  421,  at  noon.) 
697     .     .     Paulus  Lucas  Anafestus  of  Heraclea  chosen  as  first  Doge. 
809     .     .     Pepin,  son    of  Charlemagne,  attempts    to    take    Venice    and    is 

defeated. 
828  (about)  The    body    of    Saint    Mark    is    brought    to    Venice,    and    he    is 
proclaimed    protector    of    the    Republic    in    place    of    Saint 
Theodore. 
959  (about)  The  brides  of  Venice  and  their  dowries  are  carried  off  by  Istrian 

pirates. 
975     .     .     The  first  basilica  of  Saint  Mark  is  destroyed  by  fire. 
99S     .     .     Pietro  Orseolo  is  acclaimed  as  Doge  of  Venice  and  Dalmatia. 
998     .     .     The  Emperor  Otho  III.  visits  Venice  secretly. 
1009     .     .     Venice  is  ravaged  by  the  plague. 
1099     •     •     Venetians  defeat  the  Pisans  off  Rhodes. 
1 1 23     .     .     Defeat  of  the  Turks  at  Jaffa. 
1 123     ,     .     The  Doge  Domenico  Michiel  takes  Tyre. 
1 167     .     .     Venice  joins  the  Lombard  League,  with  Verona,  Padua,  Milan, 

Bologna,  and  other  cities. 
1 1 72     ,     .     Institution    of    the    Great    Council,    in    which     membership     is 

open  and  elective. 
1 1 77     .     .     The     Emperor     Frederick     Barbarossa     makes    submission    to 

Pope  Alexander  III.  at  Venice. 
1 1 77     0     .     The    ceremony    of    the     Espousal    of    the    Sea    by   the    Doge 

instituted. 
1202  (Oct.  8) The  Venetian  fleet  sets  out  for  the  Fourth  Crusade  under  the 

Doge  Enrico  Dandolo. 
1204  (April  12)  Constantinople  taken  by  the  Venetian  and  French  forces. 

425 


426  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 

A.D. 

1277  .  .  Membership  in  the  Crcat  Council  limited  to  those  of  legitimate 
birth. 

1297  .  .  Closure  of  the  Great  Council,  in  which  membership  becomes 
a  privilege  of  the  nobles. 

1300    .     .     Conspiracy  of  Marino  Bocconio. 

1310     .     .     Conspiracy  of  Marco  Quirini  and  Bajamonte  Tiepolo. 

1335     .     .     Permanent  institution  of  the  Council  of  Ten. 

1348     .     .     Venice  loses  half  her  population  by  the  plague. 

1354     .     .     Conspiracy  of  Marino  Faliero. 

1379-80    .     War  of  Chioggia. 

1404-54  .  During  this  time  Venice  possesses  herself,  on  the  mainland, 
of  Padua,  Ravenna,  Verona,  Treviso,  Vicenza,  Brescia,  Ber- 
gamo, Feltre,  Belluno,  Crema,  and  I'riuli. 

1405     .     .     Carlo  Xeno  takes  Padua  from  Carrara. 

1426  .  .  League  with  Florence  concluded.  Brescia  surrenders  to  the 
allied  forces,  the  Venetian  troops  being  commanded  by 
Carmagnola. 

1428     .     .     Bergamo  surrenders  to  Carmagnola. 

1432  (May  5)  Carmagnola  executed  as  a  traitor  to  the  Republic. 

1437  •  •  Erasmo  da  Narni,  nicknamed  Gattamelata,  is  made  commander 
of  the  Venetian  army. 

1449     .     .     Bartolommeo  Colleoni  is  commander  of  the  Venetian  forces. 

1453  (May  29)  Constantinople  taken  by  the  Turks.  Many  Venetians  are 
massacred  and  much  Venetian  property  destroyed. 

1477  .  .  Scutari,  besieged  by  the  Turks,  is  successfully  defended  by 
Antonio  da  Lezze. 

1489  .  .  Venice  annexes  Cyprus,  leaving  Catharine  Cornaro  the  empty 
title  of  its  Queen. 

1508  .  .  League  of  Cambrai,  between  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  Pope 
Julius  II.,  Louis  XII.  of  France,  and  Ferdinand  of  Aragnn. 

157 1  (Oct.  7)  Battle  of  Lepanto  won  by  the  allied  fleets  of  Venice,  Genoa, 
the  Holy  See,  and  Spain,  commanded  respectively  by  Sebas- 
tiano  Venier,  Andrea  Doria,  and  Marcantonio  Colonna,  under 
I 'on  John  of  Austria  as  commander-in-chief. 

1574     .     .     Visit  of  Henry  III.  of  France. 

1 575— 7  •  Venice,  swept  by  the  plague,  loses  one-fourth  of  her  population, 
Titian  among  them.  Church  of  the  Redentore  built  to  com- 
memorate its  cessation. 

1577  (Dec.  20)  Fire  destroys  the  Hall  of  the  Great  Council,  with  many 
magnificent  works  of  art. 

1630  .  .  Another  visitation  of  the  plague,  commemorated  by  the  Church 
of  the  Salute. 


TABLE   OF    PRINCIPAL    DATES        427 


A.D. 

1 71 5-18  .  The  Turks  wrest  from  Venice  Crete  and  the  Peloponnesus. 

1784     .  .  Angelo  Emo,  the  last  Venetian  leader,  humbles  the  Bey  of  Tunis. 

1788     .  .  Klecti  m  of  the  120th  and  last  Doge,  Ludovico  Manin. 

1796  .  .  The  ceremony  of  the  Espousal  of  the  Sea  by  the  Doge  takes 

place  for  the  last  time. 

1797  (April  18)  General    Bonaparte,  by  the  treaty  of  Campo-Formio,   cedes 

to  Austria  the  Venetian  provinces  between  the  Po,  the  Oglio, 
and  the  Adriatic,  in  exchange  for  Romagna,  with  Ferrara  and 
Bologna. 

1 797  (May  i2)The  Doge  Ludovico  Manin  abdicates,  and  the  Great  Council 

accepts  the  Provisional  Government  required  by  General 
Bonaparte. 

1798  (Jan.  18)  The  Austrian  garrison  takes  possession  of  Venice. 

1866  (Oct.  19)  Austria  cedes  Venice  to  Napoleon   III.,  who   transfers  it   to 
Victor  Emanuel  II.,  King  of  Italy. 


SOME    EMINENT    MEN    AND    WOMEN 
CONNECTED   WITH    VENICE 

The  places  where  some  of  the  principal  works  of  Painters  and  Architects  may 
be  seen  are  given  in  this  list,  which,  however,  is  by  no  means  exhaustive. 

ARCHITECTS 

(Many  of  these  were  also  Sculptors.') 

1618-1684.    Giuseppe  Benoni. 
The  Dogana. 

(Not  kno\vn)-i529.     Bartolommeo  Bon. 

Ducal  Palace,  S.  Maria  clell'  OrLo,  Scuola  di  San  Rocco, 
Palazzo  Foscari. 

(Not  known)-about  1680.     BALDASSARE  LoNGHENA. 

S.  Maria  degli  Scalzi,  S.  Maria  della  Salute,  Palazzo  Giustini- 
ani  Lolin,  Palazzo  Rezzonico,  Palazzo  Pesaro. 

1 5 18-1580.    Andrea  Palladio. 

Ducal  Palace,  San  Giorgio  Maggiore,  II  Redentore. 

1512-1597.    Giovanni  Antonio  da  Ponte. 
The  Rialto. 

1484-1549.      MlCHELE   SAMMICHELE. 

Palazzo    Grimani,    Palazzo    Corner    Mocenigo,   Castello    di 

S.  Andrea. 

1479-1570.    Jacopo  Sansovino. 

Ducal  Palace,  Lihreria  Vecchia,  Loggietta,  Procuratie  Nuove, 
Zecca,  S.  Giuliano,  S.  Salvatore,  S.  M.  Mater  Domini, 
Palazzo  Corner,  Palazzo  Manin. 

1552-1616.      VlNCENZO   SCAMOZZI. 

Ducal  Palace,  Lihreria  Vecchia,  Procuratie  Nuove,  I  Tolen- 
tini,  Palazzo  Contarini  degli  Scrigni. 

429 


430  GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 


CONDOTTIERI 

1390-1432.    Carmagnola  (Francesco  Bussone). 

1400-1475.,,  Bartolommeo  Colleone. 

(  Not  kiu>\vu)-i443.     Gattamelata  (Erasmo  da  Narni). 
His  statue  by  Donatello  is  at  Padua. 

1401-1466.    Francesco  Sforza. 

MEN    AND    WOMEN    OF   FETTERS 

1492-1566.     ARETINO  (Pietro  Bacci),  Essayist  and  Playwright. 
(About)  1510-1571.     Andrea  Calmo,  Essayist  and  Poet. 
1310-1354.     Andrea  DANDOLO,  Historian. 
i554-(after  1591).     Veronica  Franco,  Poetess. 
1 707-1 793.     Carlo  Goldoni,  Playwright. 
1 720-1806.     Carlo  Gozzi,  Playwright  and  Satirist. 
1449-15 15.     Aldus  Manutius,  Printer. 
1512-1574.     Paulus  Manutius  (son  of  Aldus),  Printer. 
1547-1597.    Aldus  Manutius  (son  of  Paulus,  and  grandson  of  Aldus  I.), 
Printer. 

1755-1832.     Giustina  Renier  MlCHIEL,  Historian. 
1523-1554.     Gaspara  Stampa,  Poetess. 

PAINTERS 

1556-1629.     Aliense  (Antonio  Vasillacciii). 

Ducal  Palace,  Accademia  delle  Belle  Arti. 

1 5 10-1592.    Bassano  (Jacopo  da  Ponte). 

Ducal  Palace,  Accademia,  Museo  (Civico). 

1548-1591.    Bassano  (Francesco  da  Ponte,  eldest  son  of  Jacopo). 

Ducal  Palace,  Accademia,  San  Giacomo  dell'  Orio. 

1558-1623.    Bassano  (Leandro  da  Ponte,  third  son  of  Jacopo). 

Ducal  Palace,  Accademia. 
1400-1470.    Jacopo  Bellini  (father  of  Gentile  and  Giovanni). 

Accademia,  Museo  Civico. 
1421-1501.     Gentile  Bellini  (eldest  son  of  Jacopo). 

Ducal  Palace,  Accademia,  Museo  Civico,  S.  Giobbe. 


EMINENT  MEN  AND  WOMEN        431 

J426-1516.    Giovanni  Bellini  (second  son  of  J.\a>r<>). 

Accademia,  San   Francesco  della  Vigna,  Frari,  SS.  Giovanni 
e  Paolo,  S.  Pietro  Martire  at  Murano,  MuseoCorrer. 
I49I-I553.      BONIFAZIO  (II.   VENEZIANO). 

Ducal  Palace,  Accademia,  S.  Salvatore,  S.  Leo,  S.  Angelo 
Raffaele. 

1513-1588.    Paris  Bordone. 

Ducal  Palace,  Accademia,  S.  Giovanni  in  Bragora,  S.  Giobbe, 
S.  Maria  dell'  (  >rtO. 

1697-1768.    Canaletto  (Antonio  Canal). 

Accademia,  Museo  Civico. 
(About)  1450-1522.     Vim  >re  Carpaccio. 

Ducal    Palace,    Accademia,    S.  Giorgio    degli    Schiavoni,    S. 
Yitale,  SS.  Giovanni  e  Paolo,  Museo  Correr. 
1675-I757.      ROSALBA   CARRIERA. 

Accademia,  Museo  Correr. 
1549-1605.     Giovanni  Contarini. 

Ducal  Palace. 
1477-1511.     Giorgione  (Giorgio  Bakbarelli). 

Accademia,  Palazzo  Giovanelli. 
1 712-1793.    Francesco  Guardi. 

Accademia,  Museo  Civico. 
(Unkno\vn)-i5i5  or  1529.     Pietro  Lombardo. 

Ducal  Palace. 

1 702-1 762.     Pietro  Longhi. 

Museo  Civico,  Palazzo  Grassi. 
1480-1548.    Jacopo  Palma  (Palma  Vecchio). 

Ducal  Palace,  Accademia,  S.  Maria  dell'  Orto,  S.  Maria 
Formosa,  Scuola  di  San  Giorgio  degli  Schiavoni,  S. 
Cassiano. 

1544-1628.     Jacopo    Palma    (Palma    Giovane,   great-nephew    of    Palma 
Vecchio). 
Ducal  Palace,  Accademia,  Frari. 

1566-163S.     Same  Peranda. 
Ducal  Palace. 

I°93-I7°9-    Giovanni  Battista  Tiepolo. 

La  Fava,  (ili  Scalzi,  I  Gesuati,  S.  Martino,  Palazzo  Labia. 

1512-1594.    Tintoretto  (Jacopo  Robusti). 

Ducal  Palace,  Scuola  di  San  Rocco,  Accademia,  S.  Maria 
dell'  Orto,  S.  Maria  della  Salute,'  Hospital  of  S.  Marco, 
S.  Cassiano. 


432         GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 

1 5 19-1594,    Domenico  Tintoretto  (son  of  Jacopo). 

Ducal  Palace,  Accademia. 

1477-1576.    Titian  (Tiziano  Vecellio). 

1  >ucal  Palai  e,  Accademia,  tfcuola  di  San  Rocco,  SS.  Giovanni 

e  Paolo,  Frari,  S.  Maria  della  Salute. 

1545—161 1.    Marco  Vecellio  (nephew  of  Titian). 

Ducal  Palace. 

1528-1588.    Paul  Veronese  (Paolo  Caliari). 

Ducal  Palace,  Accademia,  S.  Pantaleone,  S.  Catarina,  S.Fran- 
cesco della  Vigna. 

1568-1637.    Gabriele  Caliari  (eldest  son  of  Paolo). 

Ducal  Palace. 

1539-1614.    Andrea  Vicentino  (of.i  Michieli). 
Ducal  Palace. 

1525-1608.    Alessandro  Vittoria. 

Palazzo  Balbi,  Decorations  of  the  Scala  d'  Oro  in  the  Ducal 
Palace. 

1543-1616.    Federigo  Zuccaro. 

Ducal  Palace. 

SCULPTORS 

1757-1822.    Antonio  Canova. 

Accademia,  Frari,  Arsenal,  Museo  Civico,  Palazzo  Treves. 

1435-1488.    Verrocchio  (Andrea  Cioni  di  Michele). 

Square  of  SS.  Giovanni  e  Paolo. 


INDEX 


Academies,  147-149 
Academy  of '  La  Kama,'  160 
Accoramboni,  Vittoria,  58 
Adams,  Brooks,  164 

John, 362 
Adige,  the,  178,  385,  417 
Adriatic,  134,  169,  356,  396 
Agrippa,  Marcus,  statue  of,  319 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  treaty  of,  362 
Albanians,  350 

Albrizzi,  Isabella  Teodochi,  264 
Aldine  Academy,  147,  154 
Aldine  press,  154 
Algerian  pirates,  358 
Alviano,  Bartolomeo  d",  67 
Ambassadors,  77-94 
American  War  of  Independence,  362 
'Angel  Gabriel,'  war-galley,  171 
Architects,  429 
Archives  of — 

Council  of  Ten,  153,  164,  212,  333 

Inquisitors  of  State,  284,  321 

Senate,  363 
Aretino,  Pietro,  136-144,  147,  196 
Aristocracy,  Venetian  — 

laws  relating  to  baptism,  6 

marriage  laws,  6-8 

registration  of  births  and  marriages,  7 
Aristotle's    works,   first    Greek    edition, 

150-151,  152 
Armenians,  114 

Arsenal,  the,  95-98,  172,  194,  228,  270, 
272,  274,  275,  276,  312,  349,  351- 
354 
Arsenalotti,  97,  98,  184 
Art,  dramatic,  278-280 
Arundel,  Countess  of,  216-218 

Sir  John,  164 


Athens,  227 

Augsburg,  68,  182 

Austria,  223,  224,  226,  362,  367,  371,  372, 

377.  378,  379.  387.  388.  389.  393. 

394.  396,  399.  4i5 
Emperor  of,  417 
Avogadori,  the,  6,  296 

Badoer,  Federigo,  159-161 

Bailo  of  Constantinople,  81,  341 

Balland,  General,  417 

Ballarin,  Zorzi,  103 

Ballot-boxes,  office  of  carrying,  8 

Balsamo,  Giuseppe,  316-317 

Bandits,  52-53,  55 

Banquets,  ducal,  337-340 

Baraguay  d'Hilliers,  General,  389,  400, 

406 
Barbaro,  Marcantonio,  8,  78,  79 
Barbarigo,  Agostino,  416 
Barchi,  Giacomo,  331,  332 
Baschet,  M.  Armand,  37,  94,  219 

Souvenirs  of,  85,  183 
Basilica  of   Saint   Mark,   66,    172,   267, 

342 
Bastionero,  112 

Battagia,  Francesco,  409,  410,  411 
Beaufort,  Due  de,  226 
Beaulieu,  General,  379 
Bellini,  the,  98,  133 

Gentile,  107 
Bembo,  Cardinal,  150,  156 
Beneto,  Domenico,  22 
Benzon,  Marina,  257 
Bergamo,  84,  332,  387,  389,  392 
I  lei  nil.  L  >,  Pietro,  148-149 
Beroviero,  Angelo,  103-105 

Marietta,  103,  104 


V<  'I..  11  —  2  F 


433 


4.H 


CI.KAXINCS    FROM    HISTORY 


Berthier,  Marshal,  383 

Bey  of'I'unis,  358-359 

Bin  <  irande,  134 

Risaccia,  Bishop  of,  84 

'  Black  Cabinet,'  371,  372 

'  Black  Inquisitors,'  14 

Boleyn,  Anne,  91 

Bollani,  Bishop  Pietro,  60 

Bologna,  389,  396 

Bonaventuri,  Pietro,  121-127 

Bonnal,  381,  388 

Bragadin,  Marcantonio,  170-171 

Braschi,  Cardinal,  256 

Bravi,  52-53,  55,  56,  60,  64,  320-332 

Brenta,  the,  178,  251 

Brescia,  322,  328,  329,  330,  332,  383,  387, 

388,  389 
Bridge.     See  Ponte 

of  San  Lio,  205 

of  Sighs,  46 
British  Constitution,  88 
Brown,  Horatio,  131,  347 

k aw  don,  65,  86 
Bruno,  Giordano,  26-29,  196 
Bucentaur,  178,  184,  229,  270-276 
Burano  lace,  109 
Businallo,  240 
Byron,  Lord,  217 
Byzantine  Empire,  119 

Caesar,  Julius,  346 
Caesars,  the  Roman,  175 
Cafe  Ancilotto,  317 

Cagliostro,  Count.     See  Balsamo,  Giu- 
seppe 
Calmo,  Andrea,  139-140 
Calvisano,  326 
Cambrai,  League  of,  66,  67,  198,  386 

treaty  of,  86 
Cambridge  University,  88 
Campanile,  141 

Campo-Formio,  treaty  of,  396,  417 
Canova,  Antonio,  269 
Cappelletti,  the,  of  Verona,  68 
Cappello,  the,  63,  64 

Bartolommeo,  121,  123 

Bianca,  121-128,  129 

Yittor,  46 
Carbonare,  Marchesa,  329-330 
Carlowitz,  treaty  of,  230 


Carpaccio,  106,  116,  120,  132,  133 
Casali,  Man  hese,  329 
iva,  |acopo,  281 
Castaldi,  149 

Catharine  oi  Aragon,  87,  91 
Catherine  the  Great,  341 
Cattaro,  fortress  of,  221 
Cesaresco,  Count  Martinengo,  322 
Charles  V.,  Emperor,  137,  182 
Charles  VIII.  of  France,  168,  394 
Charles  IX.  of  France,  176 
Chateaubiiand,  260-261 

Mniioires  d'  Outre  Tombe  by,  262 
Cherasco,  treaty  of,  225 
Chesterfield,  Lord,  320 
Chioggia,  5,45,  118 
Chioggia,  Zarlino  da,  180 
Chiribini,  Andrea,  275-277 
Churches  of — 

the  Frari,  149 

the  Madonna  della  Salute,  225 

the  Redentore,  225 

the  Serviti,  360 

the  Tolentini,  343 

Saint  Pantales,  131 

Saint  Patrinian,  154 

San  Basso,  143,  343 

San  Giacomo,  181 

San  Giovanni  e  Paolo,  171 

Sant'  Eustachio,  219 

Santa  Maria  Formosa,  210 

Santo  Stefano,  230 
Cicero's  Rhetoric,  151 
'  Cicisbei,'  240-241 
Cicogna,  Emanuele,  312-315 
Cisalpine  Republic,  332,  417 
Cispadane  Republic,  389 
Clogs,  128-129 
Colbert,  Jean  Baptiste,  108 
Collalto,  Collaltino  di,  162 
College  of  Nobles,  292 

of  Painters,  146 
Colonna,  Marcantonio   .73 
Commines,  Philippe  de,  168 
Condottieri,  430 
Constantinople,  40,  45,  78,  81,  169,  171, 

175 
Contarini,  Andrea.     See  under  Doges 
Convent  of  Santo  Stefano,  196 
Convents,  234-239 


INDEX 


435 


Corinth,  227 

Gulf  of,  171,  230 

Corner,  Catterino,  416 

Council  of  Ten,  2,  11-19,  22,  36,  50, 
55,  60,  62,  64,  66,  71,  73,  75,  86, 
100,  102,  114,  121,  123,  126,  150, 
160,  162,  176,  195,  212,  214,  219- 
222,  227,  248,  281,  282,  296-302, 
304,  310,  320,  323,  326-328,  392 

Couriers,  State,  84-86 

Courtesans,  130-131 

Crema,  382,  383,  387 

Crete,  225-227,  349 

Criminal  history,  Venetian,  51-66 

Cristofoli,  Cristofolo  de',  311-321,  331 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  175 

Crusades,  the,  4 

Cyprus,  170,  175 

Dalmatia,  230,  386,  417,  418 
Dandolo,  Andrea,  312 

Vincenzo,  60 

See  also  under  Doges 
Dante,  36,  95,  205 
Danube,  the,  349 
Daru,  11,  12,  105 
Deserto,  island  of,  134 
Didot,  M.,  151,  152,  153 
Diplomacy,  Venetian,  77-94 
Directory,    French,  377,  378,    381,    383, 

388,  396,  406 
Doge,  the,  palace  of,  22,  97 

restrictions  on  freedom  of,  43-50 
Doges  — 

Contarini,  Andrea,  45,  226 

Dandolo,  Enrico,  45,  174,  226 
Leonardo,  209 

Dona,  Leonardo,  12,  166 

Erizzo,  Francesco,  49,  226 

Foscari,  Francesco,  44 

Foscarini,  Marco,  254,  256,  334-335 

Giustiniani,  Marcantonio,  49 

Gradenigo,  Bartolommeo,  84 

Grimarii,  Antonio,  49 

Gritti,  Andrea,  38,  49,  116 

Manin,  Ludovico,  347,  359,  394 

Mastropiero,  Ono,  268 

Mocenigo,  Aloise  (Luigi),49, 172, 186 
Aloise  IV.,  335-340 
Giovanni,  45 


Doges  — 

Moro,  Cristoforo,  46 

Morosini,   Francesco,   49,    107,   227- 
230 

Renier,  Paolo,  340-343 

Steno,  Michel,  46,  190 

Valier,  Silvestro,  230 
Dogess,  the,  in  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 

centuries,  47 
Dolfin,  Daniele,  372,  363 
Don  John  of  Austria,  171 
Dona,  Francesco,  398,  404 

Leonardo.     See  under  Doges 

Niccolo,  12 

Pietro,  408,  409,  410,  411 
Dress  and  fashion,  34-38,  128,  242-245, 

249 
Drownings,  official,  18-19 
'  Ducal  promise,'  220 
Ducat,  gold,  92 
Ducks,  tribute  of,  48-50 

Edward  III.  of  England,  84 
Egina,  230 

Elections  of  Doge,  cost  of,  345-346 
Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England,  86 
Emo,  Alvise,  295 

Angelo,  356-360 
England.  19,  27,  83,  84,  86,  91,  93,  165, 
175,  214,  215,  219,  263,  356,  374, 
377.  398 

Venetian  ambassadors  to,  83-93 
Erasmus,  152 

Erizzo,  Francesco.     See  under  Doges 
'  Espousal  of  the  Sea,'  ceremony  of  the, 

270-275 
Euganean  Hills,  134 
Executives  against  Blasphemy,  24 

of  the  Ten,  14 
Exhibition,  first  Universal  Industrial,  268 

Fair  of  the  Ascension,  266-277 
Falier,  Ludovico,  86-93 
Fata  Morgana,  134 
Father  Inquisitor,  24,  28 
Faust,  Johann,  149 
Feasts  of  — 

Ascension,  267,  337 

Candlemas,  210 

Saint  Jerome,  337 


436 


GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 


Feasts  of — 

Saint  Justina,  172 

Saint  Mark,  337 

Saint  Stephen,  337 

Saint  Vitus,  337 
Feliciani,  Lorenza,  316 
Feltre,  149 

Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  198 
Ferrara,  221,  389,  396 
Filiasi,  262 
Florence,  no,  116 
Florentines,  4 

Fornarelto,  legend  of,  65-66 
Forts  of — 

San  Nicola,  395 

Sant'  Andrea,  396 
Foscari,  Francesco.     See  under-  Doges 
Foscarini,  Antonio,  19,  214-220 

Marco.     See  under  Doges 
Foscolo,  Ugo,  261 
Foundling  Asylum,  8 
France,  42,   74,  79,    100,    106,   108,    116, 
165,     175,    199,     224,     242,    250, 
288;  311,  352,  356,  359,   362-379, 
360-417 
Francis  I.  of  France,  74,  75,  137 
Franco,  Veronica,  131,  182-183 
Frangipane,  Cristoforo,  66-76 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  362 
Frederick  III.,  Emperor,  105-106 
Frederick  IV.  of  Denmark,  245 
Freemasonry,  311-316 
French   Revolution,  234,  340,  347,  363- 

379.  381 
Friuli,  67,  386 

Fugger  family  of  Augsburg,  181-182 
Fulin,  Signor,  14,  17,  19 
Fusina,  401 

Gabrieli,  Angelo  Maria,  416 
Galilei,  Galileo,  164-167 

letter  of,  quoted,  166-167 
Gambara,  the,  321-322 

Count  Alemanno,  321-333 

Countess  Giulia,  324 

Francesco,  331,  332 
Gambling  establishments,  194,  201,  245- 

246 
Garda,  Lake  of,  36 
Genoa,  4,  98,  379 


Germany,  74,  165 

Geronimo,  Count,  57-59 

Gibraltar,  Straits  ot,  358 

Gincvra,  Countess,  57-60 

Giovanna  of  Austria,  Archduchess,  126 

Giraldi,  65 

Giudecca,  the,  202,  277 

Giustiniani,  Angelo  Giacomo,  404 

Leonardo,  398 

Marcantonio.     See  under  Doges 

Onofrio,  172 
Glass-works,  98-106 
Gloucester,  Duke  of,  263 
Godi,  Paolo,  103 
'  Golden  Book,'  the,  5,  7,  100,  144,  294, 

378,416 
Goldoni,   232,    236-238,    241,    247,    270, 

277-280,  302,  304,  305-309,  355 
Gondolas,  38-42,  201 
Gonzaga,  Carlo,  224,  225 
Ferrante,  224 
Princess,  252-254 
Goritz,  70,  392 
Goro,  368 

Government  of  Venice  — 
aristocratic,  2 
provisional,  411 
Gradenigo,   Bartolommeo.      See    under 
Doges 
Giuseppe,  295 
Grand  Canal,  336 
Gratarol,  341 
Gratz,  398 

Great  Council,  the,  5,  7,  8-10,  44,  45, 
47,  48,  78,  120,  141,  191,  222, 
230,  231,  243,  288-296,  341, 
371,    384,    401,    405,    410,    411, 

415 
Greek  archipelago,  169 
Greeks,  114,  119 
Grimani,  Antonio.     See  under  Doges 

Cardinal  Domenico,  319 
Gritti,  Andrea.     See  under  F>oges 

Luca,  195 
Guttenberg,  Johannes,  149 

Halimedia  Opuntia,  108 

Hall  of  the  Great  Council,  179,  195 

burning  of,  98,  155 
Hapsburg  family,  169 


INDEX 


437 


In-nin,  M.,  368-373 

1  lenry  III.  of  France,  42, 98, 175-186,  251 

Henry  IV.  of  France,  208,  210,  214,  378 

Henry  VIII.  of  England,  86-92 

Heretics,  25,  28 

High  Chancellor,  82 

Hoffmann,  267 

Holy  Inquisition,  11,  23 

Holy  Office,  23-34,  I46 

diagram  of  Court  of,  25 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  12,  199 
Homer,  341 

'  Hose  Club,'  the,  42,  189-201,  278 
Hospice  of  Saint  Ursula,  277 
Hfitel  Danieli,  72 
Hungary,  199,  349 

Illasi,  57 

Castle  of,  60 
Inquisition,  the,  11,  23 
Inquisitors  — 

of  Council  of  Ten,  13,  14 

of  Holy  Office,  n,  23-34,  281 

of  State,  1 1-22 
Ionian  Islands,  417 
Istria,  67,  417 

Ivan  Strashny,  the  Terrible,  175 
Ivry,  battle  of,  378 

James  I.  of  England,  215 

Japanese  envoys  in  Venice,  186-187 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  362 

Jews,  in,  114 

Joseph  II.,  Emperor,  107 

Joyeuse,  Cardinal  de,  210 

Judenburg,  393 

Juliet,  68 

Junot,  Marshal,  393,  394,  398 

Jupiter's  moons,  167 

Knights  of  the  Golden  Stole,  82-83,  I27. 

163 
Knights  of  Malta,  225 
Kugler,  Franz,  118 

La  Foret,  215 
Lace-making,  105-110 
Ladies,  Venetian,  of  eighteenth  century, 
234-246 
of  sixteenth  century,  117-131 


Landrieux,  General,  389,  392 
Langc,  Apollonia  von,  68-76 
1  .augier,  105 
Laws,  sumptuary,  34-43,  201 

Venetian  Code,  160,  222,  223 
Legends,  Venetian,  201-206 
Legnago,  fort  of,  385,  387 
Leoben,  treaty  of,  396,  399 
Lepanto,  battle  of,  49,  171-175 
Lezze,  Antonio  da,  3 
Lido,  the,  176,    178,    180,   229,   275,  392, 

395.  399,  405 
Lion  of  Saint  Mark,  415 
Lions  of  marble  from  Pentelicus,  228 
'  Lions'  Mouths  '  (boxes),  222 
Liptay,  General,  383 
Lizzafusina,  76 
Lodron,  Count  of,  68 
Lombards,  119 
Lombardy,  320,  382,  417 
Longhi,  232,  233 
Louis  XII.,  162,  198 
Louis  XIV.,  106,  107,  108,  226,  291 
Louis  XVI.,  359,  364,  366,  372 
Louis  XVI I.,  375,  376 
Louis  XVIII.,  375,  376,  378 
Luca,  chief  of  the  Niccolotti,  179 
Luther,  Martin,  132 

Maffei,  Andrea,  265 

Marchese  Scipione,  391 
Magistracies  of  Venice  — 

aristocratic,  1-11 

in  eighteenth  century,  299 
Malamani,  V.,  316 
Malta,  349,  359,  367 
Manin,  Ludovico.     See  under  Doges 
Mantua,   224-225,    384,    387,     388,  399, 

417 

Duke  of,  176,  399 
Manutius,  Aldus,  146,  149-154 

Paulus,  154,  160 
Marcello,  Benedetto,  280 

Lorenzo,  226 
Maria  Teresa,  Empress,  343 
Marin,  Valentin,  411 
Mattel,  Charles,  175 
Martini,  Signor,  117 
Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  93 
Massena,  Marshal,  384 


43* 


GLEANINGS   FROM   HISTORY 


Mastropiero,  Orio.     See  under  Doges 

Maurice  of  Nassau,  165 

Maximilian,    Emperor,    66,   67,   68,    71, 

198 
Mayne,  Christopher,  164 
Medici,  Cardinal   Ferdinando   dei,   124, 
127,  165 

Cosmo  dei,  124,  126 

Francesco  dei,  124-127 

Isabella  dei,  58,  124 

Maria  de',  214 
Mediterranean,  the,  169,  175,  357 
Men  and  women  of  letters,  430 
M'  1  ceria,  the,  242 
Messina,  170 
Mesne,  ill 
Michelangelo,  116 

Michiel,  Giustina  Renier,   234,  242,  254- 
265,  272,  337,  338,  342,  417-420 

Marcantonio,  256 
Milan,  75,  76,  208,  381,  382,  389 

I  Hike  of,  194 
Ministry  of  Public  Worship,  European, 23 
Mocenigo,  Alvise,  404 

Giovanni,  27,  28 

Sebastiano,  343 

See  also  under  Doges 
Modena,  379,  389,  417 
Moliere,  255 

Molinari,  Carlo,  327,  328,  331 
Molmenti,  26,  35,  48,  57-65,  132,  283 
Monasteries  of — 

the  Carita,  197 

Saint  George,  22 

San  Geremia,  368 
Money-lenders,  111-115 
Montagu,  Lady  Mary  Wortley,  217 
Montecchi,  Romeo,  68 
Montesquieu,  175,  319-320 
Monti  Vincenzo,  256 
Moorish  conquest,  175 
Morelli,  262 
Moro,  Cristoforo.     See  under  Doges 

Zuan,  195,  196 
Morosini,  Alvise,  200 

Angelo,  195 

Francesco.     See  under  Doges 

Niccolo,  409 

Tommaso,  226 
Mummeries,  198-200,  278 


Murano  — 

Councils,  102 

glass-makers,  100-106,  177-178 

I  iolden  Hook,  102 

heraldic  arms,  102 

podesta,  102 
Muratori,  196 
Musaeus,  152 
Museo  Civico,  106 

Correr,  311 
Mustapha,  170,  171 
Mutinelli,  345,  346,  352 
Muzina  (prison),  19 

Nani,  Giacomo,  386,  387 
Naples,  379 

King  of,  350,  387 
Napoleon,  175,   256,   257,  258-260,   262, 

332.  352.  373.  377.  379,  38°-4I7 
Narenta,  pirates  of,  169 
Nassau,  Prince  of,  387 
National  Assembly  of  France,  363,  364 
Navagero,  Andrea,  150,  151,  162 
Nevers,  Duke  of,  176,  224 
Niccolini,  tragedian,  262,  263 
Niccolotti  and  Castellani,  179 
Nicolosi,  Angelo,  12 
Nicosia,  170 
Nievo,  Ippolito,  391 
Noailles,  Due  de,  226 
Nobles,  College  of,  292 

Oglio,  the,  396 

Opera,  first,  in  Italy,  180 

Orford,  Lord,  131 

Orsini,  Paolo  Giordano,  58,  124 

Virginio,  58-59 
Osella,  coining  of  the,  49-50,  342,  347 
'  Oselle,'  gift  of  the,  48,  337 
Osopo,  67,  71,  389 
Othello,  64,  65 
Oxford  University,  88 

Pace,  island  of,  134 
Padua,  152,  172,  349,  398 

Bishop  of,  162,  163 

University  of,  162-167,  349 
Painters,  132-146,  430-431 

College  of,  146 
Paisiello,  287 


INDEX 


439 


Palace  (Palazzo)  — 

Mocenigo,  217 

Renier,  298 

Zen,  298 
Palazzo  (Palace)  — 

Cappello,  176 

Foscari,  180,  18 1,  183 

Michiel,  257 

Morosini,  201 
Palladio,  143,  178,  197 
'  Pallone,'  game  of,  198 
Palma,  fortress  of,  323,  389 
Papal  Court,  10 
Parenzo,  49 
Paris,  242 
Parma,  362,  379,  382 

Duke  of,  329 
Parthenon,  the,  227 
Pasqualigo,  Cosimo,  22 
Passarowitz,  treaty  of,  349 
Passionei,  Cardinal,  335 
Patras,  227 

Pawnbrokers,  111-115 
Peloponnesus,  the,  227-230,  348,  349 
Pepoli,  Alessandro,  287 
Pesaro,  Niccolo  da,  22 
Peschiera,  fort  of,  351,  383 
Peter  the  Great,  Czar,  230 
Petrarch,  146,  155 
Philip  II.  of  Spain,  170,  175,  208 
Philippe  de  Valois,  84 
Piave,  the,  178 
Piazza  of  Saint  Mark,  119 
Piazzetta,  the,  270,  283,  324,  336 

columns  of,  55 
Piedmont,  367,  375 
Pigeons  of  Saint  Mark's,  188 
Pio,  Prince,  149,  154 
Piombi,  the,  333,  398,  405,  408 
Pirates,  169,  358 
Pisa,  165 
Pisani,  Alvise,  366,  372,  375,  376 

Vittor,  3,  174,  356 
Pizzamano,  Domenico,    395,    396,    416, 

Plague,  144,  152,  225 
Plato's  Dialogues,  341 
Plautus,  196 
Plays,  196-197,  283 
Po,  the,  178,  380,  396 


Poe,  Edgar,  267 

Poitiers,  175 

Poland,  362 

Political  prisoners,  66-76 

Ponte,  Antonio  da,  116 

Ponte.     See  also  Bridge 

dell'  Angelo,  202,  317,  331 

del  Carmine,  179 

di  Donna  Onesta,  131 

della  Paglia,  70 

Storto,  121 
Popes  — 

Alexander  III.,  267,  270 

Alexander  VI.,  153 

Alexander  VIII.,  228 

Clement  VII.,  91 

Clement  VIII.,  208 

Gregory  XIII.,  238 

Innocent  VIII.,  209 

Julius  II.,  198 

Paul  III.,  209 

Paul  V.,  208,  209 

Pius  II.,  46 

Pius  VII.,  379 

Sixtus  V.,  78,  81,  186 
Pordenone,  67,  68.  98 
Portugal,  356,  358 
Pozzi,  the,  21,  333,  405,  408 
Prata,  Count,  278,  279 
Printing,  invention  of,  149 
Prisons  and  prisoners  — 

in  eighteenth  century,  333 

in  sixteenth  century,  19-22 
Priuli,  Zacaria,  195 
Procession  of  Corpus  Domini,  73 
Provisional  Government  of  Venio\  411 
Provveditori,  34-43,  129,  186,  201,   235, 

282,  296,  354 
Psalms  of  David,  148 
Ptolemy,  167 

Quirini,  the,  53 
Aloise,  376 
Angelo,  296,  297,  372 

Rabelais,  132 

Raphael,  132 

Record  Office,  English,  19 

'  Red  Inquisitor,'  14 

Reggio  d'Emilia,  389 


440 


GLEANINGS    FROM   HISTORY 


Renascence,  the,  119 
Renier,  Bernardino,  257,  258 

Paolo.     Sec-  under  1  )oges 
Revolutionaries,  316-317 
Rialto,  the,  5.1,  172,  283 

bridge  of,  1 15-116,  180 

column  of,  54 
Richard  III.  of  England,  109,  175 
Riviera,  the,  377 
Robert,  King,  84 
Robespierre,  375 
Romagna,  396 
Romanin,  11-12,  18,  299,  346,  358,  362, 

363.  386 
Rome,    10,    28,    78,   81,    106,    in,    141, 
J73-  x74i  I86,  208,  209,  212,   213, 
256 

Barberini  Gallery  in,  118 
'  Royal  Macedonian  '  regiment,  350 
Rubini,  the  actor,  270 
Russia,  175,  341,  377  *■ 

Sabellico,  150,  155,  158 
Saint  Catharine,  84 
Saint  Helen's  Island,  274 
Saint  Justina,  172 
Saint  Mark  — 

procurators  of,  231,  305,  336,  359 

standard  of,  418-420 
Saint  Mark's  Church,  18,  54,  143,  228, 
360 

horses  of,  417 

Sacristy,  25 
Saint  Mark's  Square,  35,  140,  195,  199, 
212,  258,   260,  268,  269,  298,  408, 
409,  414,  415 
Salimbeni,  General,  414 
Salo,  332 

Salo,  Pietro  di,  54 
Salviati,  banking  house  of,  121 
San  Cassian,  134,  138,  140,  156 
San  Cristoforo,  island  of,  134 
San  Giacomo  in  Orio,  157 
San   Giorgio    Maggiore,  island  of,   275, 

405 

San  Sisto,  Cardinal,  176 

Sanmichele,  142 

Sansovino,  Jacopo,  136,  140-144,  162 

Sant'  Omobono,  64 

Santa  Maura,  islands  of,  227,  230 


Sanudo,  Marin,  21-22,  35,  36,  65,  68,  70, 

73.   15".  155-158,   195.   'y'->.    *99i 

200 
Sardinia,  379 

Sarpi,  Fra  l'aolo,  211-213,  218 
Saturn's  rings,  167 
Savoy,  367 

Duke  of,  184 
Sbirri,  56,  57,  102,  310-333 
Scholars,  149-167 

Schulenburg,  Marshal  Count  von,  349 
Sculptors,  432 

See,  Holy,  10,  23,  163,  208,  209,  210 
Senate,  sittings  of,  n 
Serruricr,  General,  417 
Shakespeare,  64,  65,  139,  257 
Sign  of  the  Old  Woman,  180 
Signorotti,  56-57,  320 
Signors  of  the  Night,  10,  24,  195,  302 
Signory,  the,  64,  71,  74,  77,  82,  84,  166, 

188,   194,   198,  211,  213,  218,  234, 

266,  268,  269,  275,  373 
'  Silver  Book,'  the,  144 
Slaves,  169 

Smedley,  E.  W.,  11,  105,  378 
Sobieski,  226 
Societies,  secret,  311 
Soranzo,  Jacopo,  93 

Tommaso,  392,  396 
Spain,    19,  42,  175,   199,  208,  209,   210, 

223 
Stampa,  Gaspara,  146,  162 
Stanislaus  Leczinski,  King,  320 
'Statutes    of  the    Inquisitors  of  State, 

n-12 
Steno,  Michel.    See  under  Doges 
Superstitions,  205-206 

'Talanta,'  Pietro  Aretino's,  196 
Tassini,  131,  143,  148 
Temesvar,  349 
Terremoto,  143 
Thames,  the,  27 
Theatre  — 

Fenice,  285,  287 

of  San  Benedetto,  281,  282,  285 

of  San  Cassian,  246,  304 

of  San  Moise,  245-246 
Theatres,  194,  197,  278-287 
Theatrical  performances,  194,  278 


INDEX 


441 


Thieves,  flogging  of,  54 
Thode,  Dr.  Heinrich,  67,  74 
Tiepolo,  Domenico,  392,  396 

Giovanni  Batiista,  251 
Tintoretto,  98,  120,  133,  138,  139, 144,  178 
Titian,  98,  118,   120,   133,    135-136,    138, 

140,  141-145,  162,  261 
Tomassetti,  Professor,  190 
Torcello,  134 

Torre,  Count  Francesco  della,  12 
Torture,  use  of,  16-18,  25 
Tower  of  London,  21 
Trade,  protection  of,  108,  no 
Treviso,  251,  254,  404 
Trieste,  368 
Tron,  Andrea,  340 
Tuileries,  364 
Turin,  367 
Turkey,  40,  199,  341 
Turks,  169-175,   225-230,   348-349,   351, 

361 
Turner,  116 
Tuscan  language,  n 
Tuscany,  362,  379 

Grand  Duke  of,  126,  136 

Usmago,  podesta  of,  305 
Utrecht,  treaty  of,  362 

Valaresso,  278 

Valier,  Silvestro.     See  under  Doges 

Vallesabbia,  390,  393 

Valtellina,  210 

Vano,  Girolamo,  216,  218 

Vatican,  23,  77,  164,  212 

Vendramin,  Andrea,  195 

Venice  — 

ceded  to  Austria,  417 
English  ambassadors  to,  84 
Henry  III.  of  France  visits,  175-186 
period  of  decadence,  207-254 


Venice  — 

period  of  greatest  prosperity,  5 

plague  visitations,  152,  225 
Venier,  Girolamo,  340 

Sebastian,  173-175,  356 
Verona,  57,  323,  375,  376,  377,  383,  384, 

39i.  398 
Veronese,  Paolo,  26,  120,  146,  178,  261 

trial  of,  29-34 
Versailles,  364 

Congress  of,  362 
Vervins,  208 
Vienna,  68,  226 

treaty  of,  362 
Villetard,  406-410 
Vinciolo,  Francesco,  107 
Visconti,  the,  4 

Vital  i,  Doctor  Buonafede,  269 
Viviani,  164,  165,  167 

War  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  349,362, 
382 

'  Wehmgericht,'  the,  12 

Williams,  Henry,  164 

Wine-sellers,  111-114 

'  Wise  Men  on  Blasphemy,'  196 

'  Wise  Men  on  Heresy,'  23,  24 

Wolsey,  Cardinal,  87,  92 

Women  of  Venice  — 

in  eighteenth  century,  234-246 
in  sixteenth  century,  117-131 

Worsley,  Sir  Richard,  84,  375 

Wotton,  Sir  Henry,  216,  218 

Wyalt,  Sir  Thomas,  164 

Yriarte,  M.,  8,  29,  44-45,  78,  79,  119,  128, 
146 

Zeno,  Carlo,  3,  174,  356 

Renier,  220,  221 
Zulian,  Girolamo,  311 


THE  END 


SOUTHERN   ITALY  AND   SICILY 

AND 

THE   RULERS   OF   THE   SOUTH 

By   F.    MARION    CRAWFORD 

WITH  A  HUNDRED  ORIGINAL  DRAWINGS   BY  HENRY   BROKMAN 

Cloth  Crown  8vo  $2.50  net 

"  No  living  man  of  letters  could  have  handled  his  materials  with  greater  skill, 
or  distilled  them  with  more  certainty  into  a  fluent  and  fascinating  narrative." 

—  The  Dial. 

"  Mr.  Crawford's  manner  and  method  throughout  are  those  of  the  romantic 
historian:  true  to  fact,  but  true,  also,  to  the  romance  of  events,  and  enlivening 
and  strengthening  the  whole  through  the  historical  imagination.  He  has  taken 
a  subjecMvhieh  he  is  peculiarly  well  fitted  to  treat  by  his  experience  and  his 
studies  and  his  former  work,  and  it  becomes,  in  his  hand,  a  source  of  unexpected 
pleasure."  —  Boston  Herald. 


AVE  ROMA  IMMORTALIS 

STUDIES   FROM   THE   CHRONICLES   OF    ROME 

By    F.    MARION    CRAWFORD 
Author  of  "  Rulers  of  the  South"  etc. 

Fully  Illustrated     Cloth     Crown  8vo     $3.00  net 

Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell  writes  :  "  I  have  not  for  a  long  while  read  a  book 
which  pleased  me  more  than  Mr.  Crawford's  '  Roma.'  It  is  cast  in  a  form  so 
original  and  so  available  that  it  must  surely  take  the  place  of  all  other  books 
about  Rome  which  are  needed  to  help  one  to  understand  its  story  and  its 
archaeology.  .  .  .    The  book  has  for  me  a  rare  interest." 

"  The  ablest  popular  work  on  Rome  published  in  recent  years." 

—  Chicago  Tribune. 
"  The  ideal  chronicle  of  the  Eternal  City."  —  Inter-Ocean. 

"  More  valuable  to  the  general  reader  than  any  other." 

—  San  Francisco  Chronicle. 

"  He  recalls  the  Rome  of  the  great  age  of  the  conquests ;  of  the  Empire  ;  of 
those  years  when  the  fires  of  life  were  dying  ;  of  the  age  of  the  barbarians  ;  of  the 
middle  age;  of  the  Renaissance;  and  of  the  modern  time."  —  H.  \V.  MABIE. 


THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

64-66  FIFTH  AVENUE,   NEW   YORK 


Writings    of   F*   Marion   Crawford 


i2mo      Cloth 


Whosoever  Shall  Offend   .  $1.50 

The  Heart  of  Rome  1.50 

Cecilia 1.50 

Marietta 1.50 

Corleone .  1.50 

Mr.  Isaacs 1.50 

Dr.  Claudius 1.50 

A  Roman  Singer  ...  1.50 

An  American  Politician  1.50 

To  Leeward 1.50 

Zoroaster 1.50 

A  Tale  of  a  Lonely  Parish  1.50 

Marzio's  Crucifix  ....  1.50 

Paul  Patoff 1.50 

Pietro  Ghisleri      ....  1.50 

The  Children  of  the  King  .  1.50 

Marion  Darche      ....  1.50 

The  Three  Fates  ....  1.50 


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Love  in  Idleness  ....     2.00 
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Taquisara 1.50 

Adam  Johnstone's  Son.  and 
A  Rose  of  Yesterday  1.50 

Saracinesca 1.50 

Sant1  Ilario 1.50 

Don  Orsino 1.50 

With  the  Immortals      .     .     1.50 

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mance, and  Khaled    .     .      1.50 
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In  the  Palace  of  the  King  .     1.50 


WHOSOEVER  SHALL  OFFEND.  — "Not  since  George  Eliot's  '  Romola'  brought  her 
to  her  foreordained  place  among  literary  immortals,  has  there  appeared  in  English 
fiction  a  character  at  once  so  strong  and  sensitive,  so  entirely  and  consistently 
human,  so  urgent  and  compelling  in  its  appeal  to  sustained,  sympathetic  interest." 

—  Philadelphia  North  American. 

THE  HEART  OF  ROME  (A  Tale  of  the  "  Lost  Water").  —  "  Mr.  Crawford  has 
written  as  absorbingly  interesting  a  story  as  any  of  the  perennially  engrossing 
'Saracinesca'  trilogy.    — Brooklyn  Times. 

CECILIA  (A  Story  of  Modern  Rome).  — "The  love  story,  which  is  the  dominating 
interest  throughout,  is  so  strange  and  novel  a  one  that  many  readers  will,  we  think, 
compare  it  with  '  Mr.  Isaacs,'  the  author's  first  and  most  popular  book.  .  .  .  Mr 
Crawford  will,  we  think,  be  held  to  have  scdred  a  new  and  distinct  success  in  this 
story." —  The  Philadelphia  North  American. 

MARIETTA  (A  Maid  of  Venice). —"The  workshop,  its  processes,  the  ways  and 
thought  of  the  time,  all  this  is  handled  in  so  masterly  a  manner,  not  for  its  own  sake, 
but  for  that  of  the  story.  ...  It  has  charm  and  the  romance  which  is  eternally 
human,  as  well  as  that  which  was  of  the  Venice  of  that  day.  And  over  it  all  there 
is  an  atmosphere  of  worldly  wisdom,  of  understanding,  sympathy,  and  tolerance,  of 
intuition  and  recognition,  that  makes  Marion  Crawford  the  excellent  companion  he 
is  in  his  books  for  mature  men  and  women."  —  New  York  Mail  ami  Kxpress. 

CORLEONE  (A  Tale  Of  Sicily).—  The  last  of  the  famous  Saracinesca  Series.— 
"  It  is  by  far  the  most  stirring  and  dramatic  of  all  the  author's  Italian  stories.  .  .  . 
The  plot  is  a  masterly  one,  bringing  at  almost  every  pace  a  fresh  surprise,  keeping 
the  reader  in  suspense  to  the  very  end." —  The  Times,  New  York. 

MR  ISAACS. —  "It  is  lofty  and  uplifting.  It  is  strongly,  sweetly,  tenderly  written. 
It  is  in  all  respects  an  uncommon  novel." —  The  Literary  World. 


DR.  CLAUDIUS.  —  "The  characters  are  strongly  marked  without  any  suspicion  ot 
caricature,  and  the  author's  id  tnd  political  subjects  are  often  brilliant 

and  always  striking.     It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  there  is  not  a  dull  i 
the  book,  which  is  peculiarly  adapted  for  the  recreation  of  the  student  or  thiol 

Living  Church. 

A  ROMAN  SINGER.  — "  A  powerful  story  of  art  and  love  in  koine." 

—  The  New  York  Observer. 

AN  AMERICAN  POLITICIAN. —  "  One  of  the  characters  is  a   visiting   Englishman. 
Possibly  Mr.  Crawford's  long  residence  abroad  has  made  him  selet  t  sui  h  a  hi 
a  safeguard  against  slips,  which  does  not  seem  to  have  been   needed.      His  insight 
into  a  phase  of  politics  with  which  he  could  hardly  be  expected  to  be  familiar  is  re- 
markable." —  Buffalo  Express. 

TO  LEEWARD.  —  "  It  is  an  admirable  tale  of  Italian  life  told  in  a  spirited  way  and  far 
better  than  most  of  the  fiction  current." —  San  Francisco  Chronicle. 

ZOROASTER.  —"As  a  matter  of  literary  art  solely,  we  doubt  if  Mr.  Crawford  1 

before  given  us  better  work  than  the  description  of  Belshazzar's  feast  with  which  the 
story  begins,  or  the  death-scene  with  which  it  closes." 

—  'The  Christian  Union  (now  The  Outlook). 

A  TALE  OF  A  LONELY  PARISH.  -  "  It  is  a  pleasure  to  have  anything  so  perfect 
of  its  kind  as  this  brief  and  vivid  story.  It  is  doubly  a  success,  being  full  of  human 
sympathy,  as  well  as  thoroughly  artistic."       The  Critic. 

MARZIOS  CRUCIFIX.  —  "  We  take  the  liberty  of  saying  that  this  work  belongs  to 
the  highest  department  of  character-painting  in  words." —  'The  Churchman. 

PAUL  PATOFF.  —  "  It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  the  story  is  skilfully  and  picturesquely 
written,  portraying  sharply  individual  characters  in  well-defined  surroundings." 

—  New  York  Commercial  Advertiser. 

PIETRO  GHISLERI.  —  "  The  strength  of  the  story  lies  not  only  in  the  artistic  and 
highly  dramatic  working  out  of  the  plot,  but  also  in  the  penetrating  analysis  and 
understanding  of  the  impulsive  and  passionate  Italian  character."      Public  Opinion. 

THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  KING.  —  "  One  of  the  most  artistic  and  exquisitely  finished 
pieces  of  work  that  Crawford  has  produced.  The  picturesque  setting,  Calabria  and 
its  surroundings,  the  beautiful  Sorrento  and  the  Gulf  of  Salerno,  with  the  bewitching 
accessories  that  climate,  sea,  and  sky  afford,  give  Mr  Crawford  rich  opportunities 
to  show  his  rare  descriptive  powers.  As  a  whole  the  book  is  strong  and  beautiful 
through  its  simplicity."  —  Public  Opinion. 

MARION  DARCHE.  —  "  We  are  disposed  to  rank  '  Marion  Darche '  as  the  best  of  Mr. 
Crawford's  American  stories."  —  The  Literary  World. 

THE  THREE  FATES.  —  "  The  strength  of  the  story  lies  in  portrayal  of  the  aspirations, 
disciplinary  efforts,  trials,  and  triumphs  of  the  man  who  is  a  born  writer,  and  who  by 
long  and  painful  experiences  learns  the  good  that  is  in  him  and  the  way  in  which  to 
give  it  effectual  expression.  Taken  for  all  in  all,  it  is  one  of  the  most  pleasing  of  all 
his  productions  in  fiction,  and  it  affords  a  view  of  certain  phases  of  American,  or 
perhaps  we  should  say  of  New  York,  life  that  have  not  hitherto  been  treated  with 
anything  like  the  same  adequacy  and  felicity."  —  Boston  Beacon. 

KATHARINE  LAUDERDALE.  —  "  It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  the  story  is  skilfully 
and  picturesquely  written,  portraying  sharply  individual  characters  in  well-defined 
surroundings."  —  New  York  Commercial  Advertiser. 

THE  RALSTONS.  —  "  The  whole  group  of  character  studies  is  strong  and  vivid." 

—  The  Literary  World. 

LOVE  IN  IDLENESS. —"The  story  is  told  in  the  author's  lightest  vein;  it  is  bright 
and  entertaining." —  The  Literary  World. 

CASA  BRACCIO.  — "We  are  grateful  when  Mr.  Crawford  keeps  to  his  Italy.  The 
poetry  and  enchantment  of  the  land  are  all  his  own,  and  '  Casa  Hraccio*  gives 
promise  of  being  his  masterpiece.  .  .  .  He  has  the  life,  the  beauty,  the  heart,  and 
the  soul  of  Italy  at  the  tips  of  his  fingers."  —  Los  Angeles  Express. 

TAQUISARA.  — "  A  charming  story  this  is,  and  one  which  will  certainly  be  liked  by 
all  admirers  of  Mr.  Crawford's  work."—  New  York  Herald. 


ADAM  JOHNSTONE S  SON  and  A  ROSE  OF  YESTERDAY.  -"  It  is  not  only  one 
of  the  most  enjoyable  novels  that  Mr.  i  rawford  has  ever  written,  but  is  a  novel  that 
will  make  people  think."      Boston  />'...■ 

"Don't  miss  reading  M  rd's  new  novel, '  A  Rose  of  Yesterday.'    It  is 

brief,  but  beautiful  and  sirmy      It  is  as  i  harming  a  piece  of  pure  idealism  as  ever 
le  from  Mr.  i  rawford  -  pi  n."      I  hie  ago  Tribune. 

SARACINESCA  — "  The  work  has  two  distinct  merits,  either  of  which  would  serve  to 
make  it  meat:  that  ol  telling  a  perfect  story  in  a  perfect  way,  and  of  giving  a  giaphic 
picture  o(  Roman  society.  .  .  .  The  story  is  exquisitely  told,  and  is  the  author's 
highest  achievement,  as  yet,  in  the  realm  of  fiction.    —  The  Boston  Traveler. 

SANT  ILARIO  (A  Sequel  to  Saracinesca).  —, "  A  singularly  powerful  and  beautiful 
st  ry.  ...  It  fulfils  every  requirement  of  artistic  fiction.  It  brings  out  what  is 
most  impressive  in  human  action,  without  owing  any  of  its  effectiveness  to  sensa- 
tionalism or  artifice.  It  is  natural,  fluent  in  evolution,  accordant  with  experience 
graphic  in  description,  penetrating  in  analysis,  and  absorbing  in  interest." 

—  The  New  York  Tribune. 

DON  ORSINO  (A  Sequel  to  Saracinesca  and  Sant"  Ilario).  — "  Offers  exceptional 
enjoyment  in  many  ways,  in  the  fascinating  absorption  of  good  fiction,  in  the  interest 
of  faithful  historic  accuracy,  and  in  charm  of  style.  The  'New  Italy'  is  strikingly 
revealed  in  '  lion  Orsino.'  "  —  Boston  Budget. 

WITH  THE  IMMORTALS.  —  *'  The  strange  central  idea  of  the  story  could  have 
occurred  only  to  a  writer  whose  mind  was  very  sensitive  to  the  current  of  modem 
thought  and  progress,  while  its  execution,  the  setting  it  forth  in  proper  literary  <  loth- 
ing,  could  be  successfully  attempted  only  by  one  whose  active  literary  ability  should 
be  fully  equalled  by  his  power  of  assimilative  knowledge,  both  literary  and  scientific, 
and  no  less  by  his  courage,  and  so  have  a  fascination  entirely  new  for  the  habitual 
reader  of  novels.  Indeed,  Mr.  Crawford  has  succeeded  in  taking  his  readers  quite 
above  the  ordinary  plane  of  novel  interest." —  The  Boston  Advertiser. 

GREIFENSTEIN  "  .  .  .  Another  notable  contribution  to  the  literature  of  the  day. 
Like  all  Mr.  Crawford's  work,  this  novel  is  crisp,  clear,  and  vigorous,  and  will  be 
read  with  a  great  deal  of  interest."  —  New  York  Evening  Telegram. 

A  CIGARETTE  MAKER'S  ROMANCE  and  KHALED.  —  "  It  is  a  touching  romance, 
filled  with  scenes  of  great  dramatic  power  "       Boston  Commercial  Bulletin. 

"It  abounds  in  stirring   incidents    and    barbaric    picturesqueness;    and   the   love 
struggle  of  the  unloved  Khaled  is  manly  in  its  simplicity  and  noble  in  its  ending." 

—  The  Mail  and  Express. 

THE  WITCH  OF  PRAGUE .  — "  The  artistic  skill  with  which  this  extraordinary  story 
is  constructed  and  carried  out  is  admirable  and  delightful.  .  .  .  Mr.  Crawford  has 
scored  a  decided  triumph,  for  the  interest  of  the  tale  is  sustained  throughout.  .  .  . 
A  very  remarkable,  powerful,  and  interesting  story."  —  New  York  Tribune. 

VIA  CRUCIS  (A  Romance  of  the  Second  Crusade). —  "Throughout  'Via  Cruris' 
the  author  shows  not  only  the  artist's  selective  power  and  a  sense  of  proportion  and 
comparative  values,  but  the  Christian's  instinct  for  those  things  that  it  is  well  to 
think  upon.  .  .  .  Blessed  is  the  book  that  exalts,  and  'Via  Crucis'  merits  that 
beatitude."  —  New  York  Times. 

IN  THE   PALACE  OF  THE   KING    (A  Love   Story  of  Old  Madrid).  — "  Marion 

Crawford's  latest  story,  '  In  the  Palace  of  the  King,'  is  quite  up  to  the  level  of  his 
best  works  for  cleverness,  grace  of  style,  and  sustained  interest.  It  is,  besides,  to 
some  extent,  a  historical  story,  the  scene  being  the  royal  palace  at  Madrid,  the  author 
drawing  the  characters  of  Philip  II.  and  Don  John  of  Austria,  with  an  attempt,  in  a 
broad  impressionist  way,  at  historic  faithfulness.  His  reproduction  of  the  life  at  the 
Spanish  court  is  as  brilliant  and  picturesque  as  any  of  his  Italian  scenes,  and  in 
minute  study  of  detail  is,  in  a  real  and  valuable  sense,  true  history."  —  The  Advance. 


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